Apocalypse, Please
by cartoon moomba
Summary: She dreams of an orphanage by the sea, haunted by a twin with magic at her fingertips she never knew she had. An unfortunate accident, a mysterious bespectacled boy and all of a sudden this game doesn't seem quite as fun anymore. "When will you be able to go home? Whenever he doesn't need you anymore, of course." SEIFER/OC
1. Christmas Holidays

_I'd like to mention right now that this story will not be focused on humorous aspects as much as One More Chance was - instead, Into The Summer Night will be taking a more serious outlook on the typical 'Sucked-In' genre. The character you are about to meet is a human girl torn away from her home - she will be selfish, she will be spoiled, she will be angsty, she will be stubborn. Yet, she'll grow, she'll meet new people, she'll make not the best decisions, and she'll learn. She will stay human, with one goal in mind._

_Into The Summer Night will involve many confusing people with their own hidden agendas; it will have personality 'who-am-I-really?' disorders, talk of different souls and old promises, friends-turned-foes and enemies-turned-allies, and people who have a knack of being possessed._

_In short, I hope you'll enjoy... (and no, not all of my author's notes are this long.)_

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

_

* * *

__Chapter I  
__**Christmas Holidays**_

"So… tell me again why you can't just say what you got me? I promise I'll be good!"

The thirteen-year-old child rolled her eyes and turned away from her younger brother, ignoring the begging look in his bright eyes. Fiddling with the fishing line string connecting her fingers and the maroon Christmas ornament that she held in her hand by the forefinger and thumb, she cast a critical grey eye over the green fir tree towering above her. Sighing when the seven-year-old beside her pouted and poked her torso for attention, she turned her face back to him.

"You'll find out on Christmas morning, midget," she explained patiently, already immune to his puppy-dog eyes as he gazed up at her face with a large frown stretching over his face. Returning to her decorating of the tree, she placed the shining sphere on an over-hanging prickly branch just above her.

"But Kirrrraaa," the boy whined, bringing up his small hands to tug at her one-size-too-large sweater. "I don't want to wait!"

"Too bad," she snapped as gently as she could, her patience wearing thin after an entire morning of non-stop begging. "Now go find mom and dad and tell them to get their asses out here and help me decorate the tree."

The child's eyes widened slightly at the 'bad word' in her sentence before returning to their normal size (which she still considered too big for his face). Shooting her a small glare, he crossed his arms and huffed, already turning on his heels to walk away.

"Meanie," she heard him mutter under his breath, shuffling out of the living room and into the hallway leading to the kitchen. Smiling to herself, Kira Lanning stepped down from the brown standing stool underneath her socked feet and gazed up at the Christmas tree stretching high to the white ceiling.

A hundred reflections stared back at her, smiling in different hues of the colors of the rainbow. Bringing a finger to steady a swaying glass ball in a non-existent breeze, she glanced at the enlarged picture of herself.

Grey eyes, almost green in the shining surface of the emerald matched her own, red curls bouncing in a messy heap around her shoulders. She gave a quick smile to the reflection and let go of the sphere, letting it fall back against the tree.

"Now, I expect the cars to be here at 3 PM sharp, no later and no earlier. They are to load all of the red bags into the _green_ cars and all of the green bags into the _red_ cars…"

Kira turned at the sound of her mother's high-pitched voice as the woman strode into the large living room – more like 'ballroom', she thought – in tall heels, chattering into the cellphone held to her diamond-studded ears.

She mouthed a quick 'morning' to her daughter, stopping to examine the Christmas tree set up before her. Kira hid her sneer behind her hand, away from her mother's prying eyes, displeasure washing over her at the similar red locks that lay down the woman's slim back and the grey eyes that ran over the tree in a fashion so much like her own.

"Busy again, eh, hun?"

Her father came up behind her, an indifferent smile on his youthful looking face, and ruffled her already-messy hair to an unrecognizable bird's nest. Scowling a fragment of an inch at the man's antics, Kira ran a hand through the curls a few desperate times in hopes of settling it down.

It remained a huge mess and she sighed, giving up on her grooming for the moment.

"Don't worry about your mother, love," her father continued obliviously and she bit back her _'I'm not'_, instead focusing on the top of her tree where the star was supposed to reside. "She's just worrying about the party tonight again – when we get back, we'll help you decorate, you'll see." He gave her what he thought was a reassuring smile, taking off the hand of her shoulder and following her mother out the door.

She could hear the scuffles in the foyer as the couple put on their coats and shoes, followed by the tell-tale _bang _of the oaken door snapping shut behind them. She sighed, her little brother's little feet padding in his room upstairs, and turned back to her tree.

The sun outside hit the windows, slinking through the drapes and illuminating the thousands of glimmering balls held up by the sprouting branches of the evergreen fir tree. Its shadow danced on the polished floors, mixing with her own as she smiled a bitter-sweet grin at her only companion in the room.

"I think I'm supposed to feel like Cinderella," she murmured to herself, reaching up a hand to fiddle with her bangs. "But then again, things are always the same so I shouldn't be expecting anything else."

Humming a Christmas-y tune to herself to disrupt the almost eerie silence of the ballroom slash living room slash whatever-her-parents-wanted-it-to-be, she took the golden star out of the white-washed box it lay in on the floor, striding over to the steel ladder by the tree slowly, marvelling at the ornament in her hands as she did every year since she could remember.

Gold and silver mixed, sparkling to her (entrancing her) in the sunlight as she hopped up the ladder, careful to keep her balance and steadying the wobbling whenever it happened.

She bit her lip, the star in one hand as she reached up on her tippy-toes since the ladder always seemed to bit too short for her height, fully aware of the dangerous wobbling that started underneath her.

_Wobble, wobble, _the ladder went.

_Wobble, wobble, _the girl went.

_Sparkle, sparkle, _the star went.

Kira strained once more, the sharp edges of the star brushing along the fir branches of the tree. Cursing her parents again for leaving her alone to (her doom) to decorate the tree in an activity that was supposed to be a family one, she bit her tongue and reached the last inch of space between the star and the tree.

_Wobble, wobble, _the ladder went.

_Wobble, wobble, _the girl went.

_Sparkle, sparkle, _the star went.

Just a little more, she thought to herself, willing her hands to stretch farther.

_Ca-lunk, _the ladder went as it fell to the floor.

_Thump, _the girl went as she stumbled and hit the wood.

_Sparkle, sparkle, _the star went as it tumbled from motionless hands and clattered to the shadows.

Darkness met her eyes, embracing her gently in a mother's warm touch, and Kira Lanning (thirteen years old with grey eyes red locks and a smile like the sun) knew no more.

-~o~-

_Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick._

For a fleeting moment, she thought she was back in her room with the grandfather clock by the fireplace ticking away every second as the fire burned brightly in the hearth. She would wake up to a smiling sun peeking into her window, a warm plate of bacon and eggs by her bedside, and the precious grandfather clock being the first thing she saw in the morning.

But then she realized that there were too many ticks in the room (_tick tick tick tick __**tick **_they went and cancelled each other out) and she wasn't on her warm, fluffy bed but on a blank slate the color of obsidian and chilling to the touch.

She glanced up, from where she was sprawled out on the cold floor with one leg tucked beneath her and the other angled out away from her body, and into the royal blue eyes staring back into hers.

The boy cocked his head, his black hair (the same shade as the rest of the strange abyss) and glinting glasses standing out against the background of ticking clocks – coo-coo clocks, grandfather clocks (her own clock!), digital clocks and even broken, wooden clocks – behind him.

"Hello," he said, staring at her from behind the round glasses.

"…Hello," she replied back, feeling as if she had always know him all along (maybe she did? who knew).

"Are you ready to go?" He asked, and she blinked at him.

"Go where?"

Her question hung in the air, and he smiled; a gentle uplifting of his lips that she had seen a lot in her life (in the dark of the night in her dreams underneath the sparkling stars).

"Away," he said simply, and she smiled and nodded at him to show she understood.

"Where to now?" She asked while standing up and when she did, she knew she wasn't herself anymore and maybe she was dead after all because she felt empty and cold.

"…Back home."

He stretched out his hand to her, an invitation to go, and she took the two steps she needed to reach him and grasped it.

"Okay," she whispered, smiling softly at the boy with the black hair and blue eyes and shining glasses who wasn't actually a boy at all. "Until later, then, Eriol."

The clocks stopped working. Her breath caught in her throat. A million screams tore through the air, through the silence of the dead abyss, and then there was nothing.

Blood marred her eyes, mixing with the boy's smile and her own and when she closed them, the world knew no more of a Kira Lanning who was thirteen years old with grey eyes and shining red hair and a smile like the sun.

-~o~-

_I'll __**always be**__ here. _

_Here? __**Where's here**_

_This place. Y'know, __**home.**_

…_We __**don't have a **__home._

_Then __**what do you consider **__this?_

_It's an __**empty place with **__memories._

…

_**You're my home.**_

…_Really?_

_I'll come back to you. I—_

_**Don't promise. **__I know it's not up to you to __decide. _

…_Alright, then. Pinkies swear?_

…_Pinkie swears._

Oi! Are you coming or not?

_Go away–!_

Come on, it's time to go!

_Stop it! She's mine!_

_**What are you doing!?**_

H-hey!! What's happening?

Children?

**Kira. It's time to wake up.**

-~o~-

"_Say, do you know what's going on? Isn't she that girl…"_

"_From Balamb? Yeah. Guess she didn't get as lucky as we did – ow! What was that for!?"_

"_You idiot! Don't you see the condition she's in? She looks barely alive… Kadowaki had to take out the full arms to get her out of that building…"_

"…_Sorry."_

"_Don't apologize. I know you don't mean it."_

"_H-hey! What do you mean by that!?"_

Annoying voices buzzed around in her head like fireflies, only not as pretty or pleasant as them but reminding her more of the bees flying around at the garden of her summer house. Groaning at them to shut up and leave her alone because she was _tired_, she blinked open one eye and was met with a blurry white ceiling that was steadily moving.

"_Hey! Did you see that!? That girl just opened her eyes!"_

"_Impossible…! After that kind of fall? She should be out for weeks!"_

She turned her head towards the couple whispering amongst themselves, to the only conversation she could clearly hear amongst the chatter of the watching students, pausing for a moment in her mind to note the strange, sticky substance that was apparently covering her head as her red locks came into view. For a passing moment she met their eyes, wide in disbelief, fear and fascination, before turning her head back to the still-moving ceiling of the contraption that she knew wasn't a hospital.

"What happened to me?" She muttered, her mind still trying to clear up the fog that covered it. She couldn't remember anything – where was she? Where were her parents? What happened, and where was her tree – the pretty tree with the pretty little star that she clutched in her hands only moments before?

She wanted someone by her side, to reassure and comfort her. Her heart called for an 'Eriol' – but she didn't know any Eriols, did she? …Did she?

She gave one last, weak groan before slipping back into blessed darkness where she could sleep. A shocked figure ran up to her side, barely visible at the edges of her vision, but she was already out of it and back into her dreams.

"_Hey… do you think we can get some hotdogs? …OW!!"_

"_You idiot!"_


	2. Dream A Little More

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/26/09**

_Chapter II_  
_**Dream A Little More**_

_It's been so long… I haven't been able to talk to you for __so long! __Can you feel it? Can you feel me? _

_Can you feel _us_?_

_Our Reunion… so long… at last, my sweet, I'll be there with you once more!_

…_wouldn't that…be fun…? …I've missed you, so, so much._

~o~

Blood-shot eyes snapped open, ragged gasps filling the air as she bit back the blood-curling scream bubbling up in her throat. She stared unseeingly up at the white plaster ceiling, past the thin green curtains billowing in the chilly wind above her, her small fists clutching the crumpled sheets beneath her quivering body as if it were a precious lifeline.

_Breath in, _she instructed her mind, making futile attempts to chase off the ghosts of the nightmare that had invaded her sleep. _Breathe in, breath out. _

After a few silent moments in which she could hear nothing but her own panicking heart and the quick breaths escaping her parched mouth, her body gave one final frightened shudder and she closed her eyes again, the after-effects of the demons plaguing her sleeping mind easing themselves into the cold night air.

She could still feel the hands grasping at her – cold, frozen hands stumbling and gripping at her skin, her face, her hair. They were tugging at everything and nothing at the same time, whispering poison-sweet promises to her soul as they pulled it in so many directions that she felt as if her entire being was being shattered into trillions of miniscule shards.

_I must be going crazy, _she mused to herself in hopes of calming the heart in her chest that was still beating three times faster than it usually did. _I mean, who dreams of voices telling you jumbled nonsense?_

Kira snorted and rolled over to her side, suddenly aware of the piercing pains running through her body at every small motion, before somehow managing to slip into an unsettling sleep.

By morning, when she opened her eyes – no longer frightened or dilated in blind panic – the strange dreams were stowed far away in the darkest corners of her mind.

~o~

**Kira Lanning**

I could feel myself stirring, unwillingly snuggling deeper into the warm sheets spread around my cold body. A warm breeze tickled my face, teasing me and begging me to awaken. Sighing as the clutches on my dreams dispersed slowly into my mind, I blinked open my eyes and gazed up at the white ceiling and hand-made curtains flittering at the edges of my vision.

This wasn't my room.

Panic began to well up in my chest as the realization set in – attempting to calm myself, I breathed in deep and held it for a few moments before releasing it in a low gasp.

So this must have been a hospital - no biggie. I've been to many over my life (I often tended to have _very _bad luck) and even though I didn't recognize this room at all, it didn't have to mean anything odd.

Somewhere outside, past the window I could see stationed above me, bells chimed in a pleasant melody and the low chatter of crowds filled my ears.

I frowned at the sounds, wondering if the hospital had gotten a new addition since the last that I was here. As often as I could recall, the building was deathly quiet in its pale state and medicine-induced wards. Bringing a hand up to my face to run through my hair – and wondering why in the world it was wrapped entirely in bandages and stained in faded red – I swept my eyes over the room.

It was small. Much smaller than the humongous ones I was used to, due to my parents' nagging at the hospital staff. The bed I was lying on, now that some of the feeling was returning to the rest of my body, felt lumpy and hard underneath my back. By what I could see past the miniature bed-side table, another one of these beds could barely fit between the pale green walls with enough walking space left over.

Craning my neck to glance past the wired machines standing at the walls towards the built-in glass window in the wall, I could see another room stretching away from me. Numerous beds lined the walls, all looking identical with their snow-white sheets and unruffled pillows.

I shuddered at the sight, settling my head back down on my own rumpled pillow. For a passing moment I could feel a smile tugging at my face at the thought that _my _room was special – but then it turned grim at the fact that being special in a hospital didn't necessarily mean anything good.

Reaching up with one hand to fiddle with the hair above my eyes I sighed, wishing for anything to happen so I could distract myself from the strange feel of this room. I couldn't remember anything bad happening to me – other than falling off that ladder, but that happened one too many times to me already – that would land me in a hospital. And these bandages! Frowning to myself and pondering on the decision to unravel the ones covering my arms all the way up to my elbows, I cautiously stretched my legs to check if they were asleep.

Smiling to myself in satisfaction when my muscles responded just fine, I sat up and removed the blanket covering my body and swung over to the side, wobbling for a second as dizziness set in. Waiting for it to pass by, I glanced down at myself and grinned once more as the familiar sight of my green sweater and black jeans met my eyes. A few dark patches of something I couldn't recognize were splattered here and there, although faint, and I could tell that my clothes were washed by the detergent smell coming off of them.

Breathing it in deeply, I put one hand on the bed beside me as I stood up, just in case the dizziness was to overtake once more. To my relief, the feeling passed quickly, and I realized that it never felt so good to feel the firm ground beneath my socked feet as it did now.

Spotting my worn-down flats by the door on the other side of the room, I made my way over to them, grimacing when my reflection caught my eye in the average-sized window hanging close by. My hair was matted, the red locks catching the sun's light and shimmering like fire in the room. Frizzy ends stood out here and there and with irritation I realized that somebody had washed it while I was asleep – the only questions left were _who _did it and _why _I hadn't woken up while they were doing so.

_Maybe I was out for quite a long while,_ I thought as I examined the dark circles underneath my eyes. I wasn't one to worry too much over my appearance most of the time, but living with a mother who threw parties every other week whenever she pleased had taught me enough to know when I looked down-right _horrible. _Another bandage wrapped around my forehead - and cleaner than the other ones; must be a new one, I decided – completed my horrendous picture.

"Wonderful," I wanted to mutter, but my voice caught in my throat and I bit back a groan as I realized that my throat was too dry from disuse to speak properly. Slipping on my shoes and putting one ear to the door to listen for any indications of life on the other side, I wrenched it open as quietly as I could before stepping into what looked like an office.

A modern-styled desk stood in the center of the room, a hazardous mess of paperwork scattered upon it that made me grimace. A few lamps were hanging on the high ceiling, casting healthy-looking light on the numerous bookshelves and drawers positioned against the walls. There were three doors in total, not including the one I had just come from, and I couldn't help my curiosity as I walked over to the one nearest to me.

The same long room met my eyes and I shut the door behind me, feeling nauseous at the perfect sight. To put it simply, it was just plain freaky to just stare at the empty walls and stuffy atmosphere.

The second door was exactly what I was looking for. I ran my fingers over the smooth countertop of the small bathroom, searching for some sort of cup at the same time. A normal looking, plastic one was sitting innocently on a shelf above and I made a grab for it, turning on the tap water of the silver sink and watching it fill up.

When it finally reached the brim – causing the cup to wobble from one side to the other – I flipped it back off and brought it up to my lips, taking a grateful gulp. Feeling one hundred times better after that, I crushed it in my grasp and threw it into the nearby garbage can.

Beginning to hum the snatches of an off-key tune I strode back out, marvelling at the fact that the rooms were still abandoned. Shrugging and throwing the fact over my shoulder as to not jinx it, I reached the last door – what I figured to be the exit – and pushed it open.

Warm air met my face, throwing my bangs around my head and into my eyes. I brushed them away, gazing in awe at the concrete walls that stretched out before me. Large, open windows were carved right into them, showing glimpses of green plains and scattered forests beyond white-washed walls. The bells continued chiming – once, twice, three times – and I stepped into the cool shade of the hallway, one hand lingering on the cold walls as if I was afraid of all of this disappearing.

_I wasn't…_

"Hey, girl, what do you think you're doing?"

I turned at the voice, startled by the loud arrogance seeping out of the boy's question. Said male stood in the shadows of the walls – which explained why I hadn't noticed him before, but then again, I was much too amazed to pay careful attention – gazing at me with something akin to curiosity and a smirk mixed together on his face. I couldn't see his face itself too well, even though his obviously light hair was smoothed back as he leaned casually against the granite walls, submerged in the grey darkness.

His eyes were dark in the shadows, contrasting nicely with the navy pants and matching school jacket hanging over his shoulder, a white t-shirt underneath. There was something that felt _off_ about him, I suddenly realized, but at the same time my curiosity began to inch forward to find out just who he was.

"So?" He asked again, raising one eyebrow and I could feel a scowl settle over my face, his attitude unsettling me and I straightened to stand taller, yet still not able to reach him. He wasn't look much older than me, if his voice was anything to go by.

No, I decided as we stared each other down in a silent competition.

I was certain, now: I was not being held in a hospital.

Not at all.

~o~

A small scowl twisted at the lips of the pale girl shrouded in darkness, watching something only visible to her play out, her brows drawn together in annoyance. Sighing, she closed her eyes after a few moments and reached up to twirl a lock of dark hair around her finger.

"Is everything to your liking so far?"

She glanced back over her shoulder at the source of the voice, watching as its owner emerged from the silhouette of a doorway to come stand beside her. Something akin to a smile began to form at her lips, and she nodded.

"Of course." The woman, satisfied with the answer, laid one hand on the younger girl's shoulder, before giving it a small squeeze and departing back through the way she came. The girl watched her back for a few seconds before turning again to the darkness surrounding her.

"And you, my dear…" Her voice floated around her, and she could swear she heard someone chuckling in glee beside her, before smiling and crushing the strand of hair wound tightly against her fingers.

"I have missed you so, so _much_."

~o~

**Things edited: **several typos missed before, as well as the ending scene.


	3. The Games We Play

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/26/09**

**

* * *

**_Chapter III  
__**These Games We Play**_

"You shouldn't be out of the Infirmary without the doc's permission, girl."

Something twisted in her mind at the words, bringing up unwelcome feelings from the past. Her scowl twisted into a small frown as she watched the boy smirking at her, still mildly curious, she could tell, by the small tilt of his head to the side. She erased it and settled on glaring at the taller teenager. He matched the look head-on, and she managed to get a glimpse of him as he shifted for a second – blond hair and green eyes, taunting her as he examined her as well.

"And who are you to tell me this?" She asked, uncomfortable under his searching gaze, and the boy shrugged as if to say it was no big deal.

"Seifer Almasy," he offered in a light tone, but she could hear the hidden meaning underneath the words; her expertise with dealing people like him taught her better.

_Bring it on_, he seemed to say and she narrowed her eyes at his cocky form.

The blond boy laughed at her determined look, almost sending her seething, but before she could react he turned on his heel and hopped over one of the shorter walls, soon disappearing amidst the foliage of trees and grass.

_Challenge accepted_, she sent back at him and glared at his retreating back, relaxing when he was no longer in her sights. One of her hands curled into a fist and she attempted to bring her mood back down, staring holes into the ground.

_Damn it_, she thought, heaving a deep sigh as her body finally relaxed. _He's just like them. So cocky and sure of himself._

_"You, you—!!"_

_She didn't know what had happened – she could remember the seething girl on the ground before her sneering into her face, mouthing off only seconds before, and now she was sprawled on the rough stone, her dress uniform now torn and dirty in several places. A few other girls stood by the side in a huddled group, gaping at the scene before them._

_Kira lowered the fist she didn't realize she had raised in the first place, her knuckles aching and crying for attention. The glare on her face smoothed itself out into a surprised expression that soon disappeared to yet another burning stare, and she only then realized that her entire body was shaking. _

_The girl on the ground hissed several things under her breath, tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes as she rose shakily from the ground, one hand cupping the side of her face. "How dare you…"_

_Kira began to shift uncomfortably under the heated stare, suddenly feeling lost and alone amidst the watching, surprised class of students. _

_More crowds were beginning to gather around the two, whispering and pointing unashamedly at the pair. A whistle pierced the air then and they parted to make way for the women stalking closer to the center of the children's attention, a bright orange vest on her chest that signified her as one of the staff sent to supervise the premises of the school._

_"Just what is going on here!?" She exclaimed, frustrated, before her large sunglasses dropped lower down her nose and she raised an eyebrow at the two girls. Something clicked in her mind and she scowled at Kira – who was now looked up as guilty in her mind – and motioned for the girl to follow her._

_The redhead did so without sending a backward glance to the girl still standing, shaken, and her posse of friends behind them, striding through the watching kids after the older woman. In no time the two reached the school's office, entering it to speak to the secretary for a second before being led through to the back room of the principal's office._

_The man behind the desk glanced up and his eyebrows shot up high at the sight of the girl in question. The supervisor said something to the principal, gesturing with her hands once in a while, but Kira's attention was wholly focused on the boring wall behind them._

_The man reached for the cabinet standing beside his desk, before emerging with some paper. Glancing through them quickly, he began to dial a number on the phone situated beside him, speaking in hushed undertones to the girl's mother before setting it down and reaching for the drawer with the school records. The woman sent her shorter companion a harsh look before walking back out, shutting the door loudly behind her._

_Kira stared at the wall some more, her mind reeling, and the principal never paused in his work to think of what was going through the ten-year-old's mind at that moment._

Hell, she couldn't even remember what the girl had said that got her so mad in the first place. But she could recall the feeling of fury and satisfaction that followed after when seeing her offender lying on the ground, astonished by the normally quiet and shy girl's actions.

A sharp cough brought Kira out of her musing and she glanced up, startled, into the inquiring face of a much older woman.

The woman before her must have been in her forties, she deduced as she stared up at the said person, her black hair in a tight bun atop her head and clad in white robes. Wincing, she realized that this must have been the doctor the other boy was talking about – and one thing she was certain for sure, was that she was not supposed to leave her bed.

Her theory was proven true when the doctor's eyes narrowed and she all but barked at the child.

"Young lady, just what exactly do you think you're doing?"

Kira winced at the loud exclamation, flushing as she averted her eyes to cement floor.

"I'm all better!" She defended herself, bringing her hands in an automatic defence. The doctor's eyes roved over her entire form, her face paling by the second.

"Good God, child!" She gasped, stepping forward to examine the bandages closer. "This is impossible…" she muttered under her breath when she found no indications of the girl previously being hurt in any place. Peering into Kira's startled eyes, now gazing up at her in confusion, she finally sighed and brought a hand up to her head.

"Do you know how this happened?" She asked after a few silent moments, and Kira blinked in confusion at the taller woman in perfect imitation of a toddler.

"How what happened?"

The doctor sent her an exasperated look over her hand and Kira frowned.

"…I was hurt?" She asked, and the doctor nodded as if that cleared up everything.

_Pain was shooting up her entire body, no matter how much she tried to be still._

"When?" She asked again, cold chills running over her entire body, even though it was the most pleasant weather outside that she had ever experienced.

"Last night."

_The dream shifted in her mind, refusing to leave her. The same cold hands grasped at her skin, refusing to let her go. She gasped, her eyes snapping open, the air refusing to enter her lungs._

Then the panic from before set in, and every coherent thought about her well-being rushed into her mind.

"Where am I?" She managed to ask, wrapping her arms around her torso in an attempt to calm the seizures running through her body. The fact that she wasn't in a hospital, most likely surrounded by people she had never seen, with no one to take her away and the memories of the dream unlocking itself now was too much for her to handle.

The doctor frowned at the sight of the girl. "Balamb Garden," she said, reaching out her hands to steady the redhead's shaking shoulders. "Are you alright?"

The question went unheard by Kira, the tremors in her body growing as she shook her head from side to side as if in a trance. "Balamb Garden?" She murmured, her vision starting to swim before her. "Never heard of it…" A voice whispered in her mind that she was lying, but it quieted away before she could question it further.

A strange look came into the doctor's eyes at the words and she leaned in closer, recognizing the signs of shock. "Do you know where you are from?" She asked, pronouncing each word slowly and clearly in hopes of getting through the girl's mind. Grey eyes blinked at her, coming into focus for a moment before sliding closed together.

"I'm from…" Her breath caught in her throat, constricting the words she wanted to say. _Say it,_ she instructed her mind, but every time she opened her mouth to explain they stopped at her throat. Giving up after a few minutes, she let out a low whimper and hung her head.

"…I don't remember."

Dr. Kadowaki of the Balamb Garden Infirmary caught the unconscious child in her arms, her mind beginning to run a mile a minute.

-~o~-

It was a nice atmosphere inside the small pub, save for the few individuals who gathered at its corners and drank their problems away with heavy liquor. Smoke traveled through the open doorway at the back, curling around the doorway and bringing a sweet aroma of fried meat with it. A few lights hung overhead, casting yellow light upon the residents, but the building otherwise stayed in darkness. The bartender whistled a cheery tune to himself as he dusted off one of the many glasses perched on the countertop, glancing at the crowds from underneath his cap every once in a while. A radio to his side belted out a quiet pop song, old and slightly dusty.

"_Hold my hand let's chase the sun_

_We both know something's begun_

_Nothing feels that real without you_

_Wanna learn so much about you…"_

A certain figure sat at one of the tables positioned at the center of one of Balamb's (rare) pubs, doodling on one of the many papers scattered around her as she hummed in tune to the song. Red hair – maroon in the shadows of the lamp near her – reached down past her shoulders, curling slightly at the ends and more often than not escaping past her ears, causing her to brush it back periodically in annoyance. Long bangs flopped over both of her eyes, over-due for a cut she was too lazy to do, getting in the way of tired grey eyes as she attempted to solve another problem in her textbook.

A few of the male occupants in the room – both drunk and sober – sent her looks time to time, talking in the black jean pants and long navy hoodie thrown over her body before turning back to their drinks. The young woman appeared to never notice them, instead focusing on the work laid out before her.

Unknown to the admiring onlookers, a voice giggled in her mind as the owner observed the room.

_Wow, Kira, _it mused, female and high-pitched, giving off another giggle. _You should see them all staring at you!_

Annoyed, the girl rolled her eyes and sighed, scribbling down a lengthy answer in her notebook. _Idiots, _she growled back in answer, no trace of her emotions showing on the blank mask that was her face. _It's almost as if they've never seen a female here before!_

The voice gave another laugh. _I believe they haven't, _it – she – answered, a smile evident in her voice. _Makes me wonder why you pick such shady places to study at._

She grimaced, both on the inside and outside. _Because it's the only place where I can actually get some quiet half of the time to study for the exams, _she explained, flipping a page in one of her books. _Now be quiet, Flym, because I don't wish to envision myself failing my first ever entrance exam._

The creature, Flym, shrugged, forgetting that her companion couldn't see her. _Whatever you say, Kira. But heads up at 4 o'clock – it seems that a guy's feeling lucky today. _She gave a small, mocking laugh, before quieting down to watch.

"_Shining star I've seen your face_

_Everything falls into place_

_Nothing else seem to matter_

_Your bring me your love…"_

The student – as it appeared by all her paperwork – stopped in her humming, glancing up into the darkness to watch the figure coming closer to her table. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, inwardly cussing the man out in her mind (much to the amusement of Flym), as the shape swaggered from side to side a few times before steadying itself.

"Well," he slurred, his ragged face coming into view as the lights overhead swung over to her area. "Ain't you a pretty little girlie?" Flym's growl echoed in the female's mind as his breath hit her face, heavy with signs of alcohol.

_A drunkard, _muttered Flym, bitterness creeping into her voice as she continued examining him from her companion's eyes. _Wonderful. And here I was, hoping you'd finally stop being a prude and get yourself someone special again. _

_Shut up, Flym, _Kira thought back, exasperated. _I am not desperate enough to date some forty-year-old something fisherman._

_Not yet, anyways_, Flym muttered.

"What you say 'bout joining me for the night?" The man winked, tipsy once more and wobbling on his feet for a moment.

Flym hissed at his words, ready to come to her partner's defence if needed. _Geez, no wonder he's here all by his lonesome. He has no shame whatsoever._

_I agree_, the redhead responded, narrowing her eyes as the man suddenly made a lunge for her, a dumb grin on his weathered face.

**Click.**

The pub lapsed into stunned silence.

He stared down in shock at the silver barrel glinting in the dim light, his eyes trailing down the handle of the gun and towards the younger girl's face. Her eyes stared back at him, a darker edge creeping in as she held the gun to his neck with her finger positioned over the safety switch.

"I would suggest you leave now," she said, her voice icy and dangerously calm for her situation. "The mayor will not take lightly to you assaulting a Garden student, I bet. And I can be oh so _convincing_." Inside her head, Flym began laughing.

The man stared at her for a few more moments before scrambling back, his eyes wide and his face as pale as snow. Finally, he seemed to recover from his shock, sneering at the girl before spitting at the floor beneath his feet.

"Filthy Garden whore," he murmured, and Kira's fingers tightened around the trigger.

"Leave. _Now_, before this _Garden whore _shows you first hand how many times she can hurt you brutally without killing you."

The man's eyes narrowed, but he began retreating back to the dark corner where he came from, much to Kira's relief.

The young woman sighed once his back disappeared from her sight, aware of the looks she was on the receiving end of. "Really," she muttered to herself, gathering up the books and papers on the table and dumping them into the shoulder bag sitting by her feet. Hefting it up, she turned to the bartender and gave an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about this," she murmured, loud enough for him to hear. He gave a chuckle and waved it off, fixing the hat on his balding hat a bit before grinning.

"Don't worry 'bout it, Lanning," he instructed and she smiled back at him, shifting on her feet to better position her bag. "Be careful going back, you hear?"

Kira Lanning, now seventeen and not quite as innocent as she was as a little girl, laughed and thanked him before heading for the door. She ignored the awed and frightened looks she was receiving from the people she passed and swung open the door, breathing in the clean air of the late evening in relief.

A chuckle met her ears and she glanced over her shoulder at the figure leaning against the walls of the building, half hidden in the growing shadows. Rolling her eyes as the male glanced up at her in amusement, she paused as he stood up and walked over to her.

"Well, at least I know you can take care of yourself," he announced, matching his strides to hers as they walked up the cobblestone streets of Balamb. A few lights blinked out in the buildings, signalling the coming of the night, but the two weren't worried in the least.

"You've always known that, Seifer," Kira replied bluntly, reaching into the pockets of her hoodie for the car keys she was internally hoping she didn't loose. The two neared the parking lot quick enough and continued towards the single vehicle parked by the borders of the town, with the shorter of the two – Kira, that is – unlocking the door and glancing up at the blond male in confusion.

"Are you catching a ride with me?" She questioned, perplexed, to which Seifer merely shrugged and walked over to the other side, tapping his foot as he waited for his companion to grant him entry to the car.

"Well, Kira?" He asked after a few moments of the two standing in silence, glancing over the hood to raise an eyebrow at the frowning girl. "Are we going, or what? Don't want to miss curfew." A sly smirk spread across his face. "Unless you _want _to, that is."

Kira groaned at his words, glaring at him for his suggestion before sliding into the driver's seat and reaching over to unlock the passenger side. Seifer was in within seconds, shutting the metal door behind him and ignoring the seatbelts. He took a sniff of the air and growled, leaning back to put his hands behind his head.

"Dammit, doesn't the smell ever go away?" He asked bitterly, propping his feet up on the dashboard.

"I can't wait to get my own car when I'm a SeeD," Kira answered in agreement, starting up the ignition and manoeuvring out of Balamb's gates and down the road to Garden. "Stupid Garden faculty don't give a shit about their cars smelling like horse manure."

"Which makes us students question why it does so in the first place."

The two burst into laughter, quieting down after a moment to focus on the sea and plains gliding past them as the sun set at the horizon, consuming the light and effulging the world in darkness. The blonde reached over to fiddle with the car's radio, and Kira allowed herself a small smile as the song from the pub filtered into the car, evidently set on replay.

"It's a nice song," she said, seeing Seifer's disgusted look at her choice in music. He rolled his eyes.

"Women…"

"_Feels like a raindrop on my skin _

_You reaching somewhere deep within_

_You make my body come alive _

_You bring me your love…"_

"So, what were you doing at Balamb, anyways?"

The young man glanced at his companion, shrugging in answer after a moment. She switched her attention from the road to him, scrutinizing him for a second.

"You weren't _following _me, were you?" She accused and he laughed, catching her off guard. The car swerved off the dirt road before she regained control of it, ignoring Flym's laughter as the spirit mulled over her companion's concentration when it came to her blonde classmate.

"Guess I got caught, hm?"

Groaning, Kira muttered a few choice words under her breath before sending a sideways glare at Seifer. "I told you," she snapped, growing irritated by the large smirk on his face. "I don't need babying."

He held up his hands in self-defence, the amused smirk still present on his face. "Not my fault, Kira. Normal people don't go off to pubs at eight o'clock in the evening." He paused for a second. "Unless there's something you want to tell me about?"

She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks at his implications, but shook it off. "I told you yesterday that I'd be gone for the larger part of the day to study," she attempted to exclaim, keeping her eyes on the road as the sky darkened even further. "The first SeeD written exam of the year is tomorrow, and I have no wish to wait another three months for it to come."

Seifer grunted, glancing up at the ceiling of the car from his position. "You know, you could have entered them last year."

She shrugged. "I wanted to take it in the same year as Bella. You know, for moral support?" Seifer stayed silent in answer, rolling down his window to stare at the plains of Alcauld as they began nearing Garden.

Silence lapsed over the two, slight tension present in the air as it did whenever the two stumbled upon the topic of SeeD exams.

"I still don't think you should try out for it," Seifer muttered underneath his breath suddenly, after a few quiet moments, and Kira threw him an exasperated glance.

"God, Seifer," she groaned, chancing her luck to take one hand off the wheel to run it through her hair in frustration. "Are we back to this yet again?" When she got no response, she growled to herself and continued. "We've been over this: I'm entering the stupid SeeD exams, and there's nothing you can do about it."

He sent her a scowl that she could see out of the corner of her eye, and she returned it right back at him. "Damnit, Seifer, I'll be fine. Stop your worrying."

"_I whisper things you never knew _

_I can't believe that tonight I'm here with you _

_You make my body come alive _

_You bring me your love…"_

"I'm not worried," he scoffed in his defence, glaring past the window and to the forests they passed outside. "I just don't think you have what it takes to be in SeeD."

It took all of her self-control not to stop the car and throw him out into the hungry clutches of the monsters. "Whatever," she muttered in response, intent on keeping her eyes off of him for the remainder of their drive.

Flym sighed in her mind, and she could almost picture her shaking her head in regret. _Kira, you need to get over __**that **__and hook up with someone already. This boy is perfect for you, and you still push him away…_

_Flym, are __**we **__back on __**that **__subject? _She responded, sending a glare at her almost-always present companion. _I don't understand what you see in him, anyways._

Flym laughed, bitterness creeping into her voice, and sent a wave of reassurance in the girl's direction. _If only you could see. _

"_See it burning in my eyes _

_Don't want words don't want no lies_

_Face anymore then words are spoken _

_Promises always be broken."_

-~o~-

**Kira Lanning**

A lot has happened in my life. Some of it may seem impossible, and you know what? It is. Yes, I'm agreeing with that here. Sometimes, I still don't want to believe where I ended up just because I fell off a stupid ladder.

Let me start with the basics. As you know, my name is Kira Alexandra Lanning. I was born on June 20, 1994 – or so my birth certificate says – and was adopted by the Lanning family when I was four years old, from the Mary Ives Orphanage at Vancouver, Canada. I can't remember what happened before that, like most kids that age, and no one has ever bothered to tell me where I was from.

My younger brother, James, was born a year later when I was five. A year after that, my parents split. My father, Michael, left my mother – Elizabeth – my brother and I to live in New York. It was no big deal - my mother was a successful business woman and we lived in a large house, almost bordering on a mansion.

My mother loved to throw parties – she liked socializing, presenting herself as a confident, self-sufficient woman. She loved to spoil me, too, in my younger days. I guess, because of that, I grew up confident and selfish. I was quiet, though, subtly uncomfortable of all the people always milling around my house.

At age ten, when I was finishing up elementary school at grade five, I punched – or was it pushed? - a girl down to the ground. I can't remember why I did it – all I remember was feeling furious with her, wanting her to go away because she said something to me. I got moved out of the school after that, and had people suggest a family psychologist for me to my mother, always saying that I was seeking attention, dependent on having the spotlight focused on me.

I became even more quiet after that, at my new school. I was always worried after that day.

That girl I punched, when I got mad – it wasn't my strength, and it didn't feel like my anger. I wasn't the best at being physically fit back then, and I had taught myself to let few things bother me, simply in fear of disappointing my mother. I was taught to be a proper, polite little girl – letting your anger show over something insignificant was a big no-no. And then, when my mom was sitting with me in that office – waiting for the other girl's parents to arrive – I can remember the way she looked at me.

"_I'm so disappointed with you, Kira," _she had whispered quietly into my ear, and then ignored me for the rest of the day. It was back then that I began to _really _get angry with her – she was my _mother! _She was supposed to support me, to love me, not to pretend I didn't exist when I wasn't a perfect carbon copy of her.

And then that anger – well, that anger was completely my own. And I began to change, finally began to mould my own person. I'm sure she loved me in some way of hers, but I just wanted her to understand that I _wasn't her_. And that anger, that other strength that felt so weird, it finally became my own. It was strange, waking up and knowing that, somehow.

Right now, I'm seventeen and stand at 5"7'. I'm your average run-of-the-mill girl: red hair, grey eyes, teenage personality. Nothing special, I guess. I live on the world Gaia, attend Balamb Garden, use pistols as my weapons and I am currently training to be a mercenary.

Except, if I told any of this to someone back home, I'd be taken to an asylum straight away.

You see, what happened was this: it was a bit before Christmas, and I was thirteen. My parents were heading out – some sort of party planning or whatever – and I was left all alone to decorate our _humongous _tree. So I went up the ladder with the star, and the next thing I know, is that I'm in the hospital of some place called 'Balamb Garden'. Imagine my surprise (and horror) when the doctor, instead of bringing in tons of needles like I expected her to, gathers this green energy _thing _around her hand and sends it into me.

The needles were there, too, just at a later part.

So I stay there for a while, trying to 'regain' my memory because Dr. Kadowaki thinks I have amnesia or something. I had to lie to her a bit, because even though I could remember most of my life – some parts were wiped out, for some unknown reason – I couldn't say it. Don't ask me; something literally stopped me every time I tried to try.

The Infirmary was where I met Seifer. The arrogant little boy was the first person I met here – we didn't like each other from the very beginning. He reminded me of the people from my elementary school, but something drew me to him. I was curious – who was this boy, why was he so confident, did he know where I was?

After a few weeks at the Infirmary, I was brought to Headmaster Cid Kramer when it was deemed I was healthy enough. Funny thing is, though, is that I healed only a week after having a building collapse on me.

Funny thing, too, about that whole building charade. According to people, a building in Balamb was falling and threatening people, so some SeeDs from Garden were sent in to help stabilize it or get the people out. I wasn't fortunate enough and got caught under it. I'm told that I looked like a corpse when I was brought in through Garden, and it is truly a miracle that I survived.

Nobody knew me in Balamb, or in any of the nearby cities so Headmaster offered me a choice: they could find an orphanage for me, or I could try staying in Garden and training to be SeeD if I had what it took.

Guess which one I chose?

So yeah. While at Garden, in the past four years of my life, I've met interesting people. Overtime, after several spats between Seifer and I, we grudgingly accepted each other and became friends. Kind of. We still have the whole rivalry thing going on at times, but we can stand each other now.

Speaking of rivals, Seifer has this one he hates with a passion. His name is Squall Leonhart; a guy our age that reminds me a bit of me when I was still uncertain – he fits the mould of "Lone Wolf" type perfectly. I've met him a few times, and we don't really get along. He uses the same weapon as Seifer, which is a gun crossed with a sword that they call gunblades. I call them bayonets, but whatever.

According to him, I'm too much like Seifer, which makes him somehow unable to be socially civil with me.

You'll see why I'm going into this much detail in a detail soon enough.

My best friend here is my roommate since day one – her name's Bella Neilo, and she's this awesome girl who specializes in sharp objects and explosives. She's a bit too hyper at times and downright scary at others, but we get along well enough. She's one year younger than me, though, so that's why I decided to wait until this year to enter the SeeD exams – it was a dream we had, when we had just become close friends, to continue on to pass as SeeDs together.

I have a few other close friends that I have grown to trust, but I still mostly keep to myself. Some people avoid me because I'm friends with Seifer (and Fujin and Raijin, his "posse") so that's fine with me. I prefer to be away from the general population of Garden cadets.

Because you see, there's this problem.

For two years, until my fifteenth birthday, it was kind of difficult to adjust to my new life. It was just too strange – magic, dinosaurs who want to gobble you up, and odd monsters. Strange people, too.

Then Eriolcame, and my memories returned.

_I stepped out of the bathroom I shared with Bella, drying my dripping hair with a fluffy chocobo-patterned towel while humming a happy tune. I walked through our small kitchen, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl on the way, and continued on my way to my small room. It was rather plain, with sky blue walls, a bed in the corner with a cactuar comforter, a desk that was always empty and a closet with the clothes Bella would make me buy whenever we visited Balamb._

_The energetic blond girl was out for the moment, probably having classes while I skipped this one day, so I had the whole place to myself. Which is not saying much, because this whole place is so small, but it was better than nothing._

_I strode into my tiny room, wishing iPods existed in this world, and threw open my closet doors to try and find something suitable to wear. I was clad in grey sweatpants and white t-shirt only, and that's not usually something you want everyone to see you in cause they look like your pyjamas._

_I just took out a nice, blue sleeveless sweater and my favourite black jeans when a voice broke through my humming._

_A male voice, to be specific._

_"I wouldn't do that if I were you."_

_So I did the thing any rational girl would do in this kind of situation and screamed Bloody Marry, my hands going to my empty waist for my pistols on instinct (also dropping my yummy apple). When I found no belt or weapons, I did the next best thing and grabbed the clothes hangar from the closet and whirled around, holding it high above me in what I hoped was a threatening position._

_"Don't come any closer, you pervert!" I hissed, waving the pink piece of plastic around at the empty air of my room._

_I did a double-take. Empty air?_

_"Oh, that's right."_

_And then before my eyes, the air wavered and shifted until a small boy sat on my bed, maybe around thirteen or fourteen years old with large glasses and an equally large smile on his face._

_I froze._

_"Long time no see," he offered, and at that point my mind blanked out._

_I took in his black button up shirt, black jeans and black shoes, all the way up to his blue eyes and equally black hair that flopped messily around his face. He stayed silent as I tried to come to terms with my mind – which reeled this way and that way – and my heart when it tugged hard in his direction._

_"Eriol," I said, against my will because hello, I knew no Eriols! but the name felt familiar so I just went along with it._

_"That's right," Eriol smiled, standing up from my unmade bed to give a small bow. _

_"How do you know me? Wait, how do I know _you_?" These questions, on the other hand, felt strange but apparently they weren't because Eriol just shrugged._

_"I'm your PS2, idiot."_

_I blinked at him, ignoring the last part of that sentence. "PS2?" I repeated dumbly and he stared at me for a few seconds before snapping his fingers._

_"That's right!" He exclaimed, grinning. "Sorry about that."_

_And then I blacked out, returning to parts of a past that I could never remember for the past two years. _

I have to admit – he messed up my life. Bad. I mean, sending me to a _video game_, of all places, just because I fell off a stupid ladder? I mean, it's not as if that hadn't happened before. I have the worst luck ever, I tell you. Hell, I didn't even know PS2s had a conscience… or powers to send people to different realities.

But do you ever get the feeling that people don't tell you everything?

Yeah, that's the problem with him. Sometimes that feeling just runs off away from him, and I become cautious, but then I forget about it. It's weird, I know. But I have no choice about trusting him or not, because the stupid piece of machine can't send me back home.

He's 'broken'.

Or so he says.

He doesn't go into detail about this, so I've no idea what's wrong with him. But I know one thing for sure: the bastard wants me to complete this stupid game. Which, by the way, I only played and finished only once in my life. So because of that, I can't remember too much about it but and at times, Eriol has to remind me of what's going to happen.

That's the reason why I'm doing this. Messing up the plot, I mean.

I wasn't meant to be here in the first place, you know? I want to go home, too, because as much as I like this place, it doesn't compare to back home. Even though I don't love my family as much as the next girl does, it doesn't mean that I don't miss them.

So I try to forget.

It's easy, sometimes. It's easy to distract yourself here – I mean, here, I grew up to be someone who has badass guns strapped to her waist and has the policy to use them whenever she wants. I have friends who swing around swords, or bazookas, and magic and sorceresses and all that stuff.

But then again, Eriol assures me that nothing will change.

I'm not saying I want these people to die – good heavens, no! But, when you realize that in the end, they are just fictional characters who'll you be leaving when you go back home forever, you can't afford to get too close to them. That's what happened after I met Eriol; I had a boyfriend who, believe it or not I will probably be seeing again, that I had for almost a year now and I had to break up with him because of the whole shock of him being not real. That's why Flym wants me to get over that and get a new boyfriend, because that's just how she is.

Then there's Flym.

Flym is… well, technically, Flym is one of the Guardian Forces of this world. There are many here; a lot more than the ones you see in the game. She's been with me every since Eriol came, because the guy did one good thing and gave her to me to keep me sane.

Flym is special.

Eriol tells me that the Guardian Forces are not just people who become GFs by chance, but also the actual Guardians of this planet.

Flym is psychic.

Somewhat. She can't go to other people's minds and find out their deepest, darkest secrets unless her user – that is, me – is extremely powerful, but she tells me that she can enter the 'realm of their mind' or something like that and manipulate them for a short amount of time. So that's what she does in battle: she appears, flutters her eyelashes at the enemy and hijacks their minds to stop and confuse them for a little while. It She's not real useful in battle, but a damn good companion most of the time.

Flym is chatty.

I kid you not. She tells me that when she was a young human girl, the world of Gaia was vastly different; Gardens did not exist, cities were smaller, magic and Sorceresses were less strange. Sometimes, I get the feeling, listening to her talk, that she misses that world of hers, in comparison to the one she can see through my eyes. That's why I feel bad about not having many chances to summon her. This world – it's still just as new to her as it is to me. It's comforting, somehow.

No one knows about Flym.

I'm not supposed to have a Guardian Force until the field test for SeeD approaches. I'm thinking of lying and telling that I Drew her from a monster some time ago while out training, or something. They can't take her away, because she chose to stay with me – like most of the other GFs – and will refuse to leave my head.

Loudly.

And then there's the whole magic/Drawing concept.

Magic, is, well, magic! Any human has the affinity for it, called "_para_-magic", which resides in them from the moment they are born into this world. However, this magic by itself is very weak, since humans were not naturally made to wield it. The story goes that the humans obtained the means of survival by gaining intelligence, and the monsters in turn got the magic to keep themselves alive on the plains of Gaia. Some years back, a man by the name of Dr. Odine of the mythical city of Esthar found a way that humans could use their mind to draw out this magic from the fiends – thus "Draw" was born. It's all pretty interesting, the history of this world.

Hm, anything else I forgot to mention?

I don't think so.

I wonder…

What will happen, to all of us, when we face off against Ultimecia? There's the possibility of dying – which is very high – and nobody wants that. Maybe crazy people (like Squall!) who are too caught up in the past for their own good, but I'm not one of them. Never. To die here is to accept the fact that I will never get back home – I'll never allow that to happen.

-~o~-

_Snap out of it._

Kira shook her head, swatting away the memories at the same time. Ignoring the curious look Seifer sent her and wondering how she managed to drive the whole way to Garden without crashing while spacing out, she drove into the dark tunnel that connected to the parking lot. A row of identical looking cars stood there and she parked in a random free spot, yawning once she got out.

"Finally done," she muttered, throwing one quick look at Seifer. "Are you going now?"

He smirked, shutting the door behind him loudly yet again. "Unless there's something we're forgetting." He winked at her and strode closer, to which she just snorted and pushed past him, already used to his shameless flirting.

"Good night, Seifer."

It never meant anything, anyways.

**Things edited: **typos, the scenes between Seifer and Kira in Garden and Balamb; Kira's recounting of her family.


	4. A Beginning of the End, or a Beginning

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/26/09**

**

* * *

**

_Chapter IV  
__**A Beginning of the End, or a Beginning of something Greater?**_

I blinked open my eyes, not surprised in the least to find myself in the glass room yet again.

I floated in the air for a while, just enjoying the calming sensation this place brought to my conscience. Hundreds of my reflections stared back at me, from shining golden mirrors to broken miniscule shards floating by me every once in a while. I never liked looking into these mirrors, no matter how many times I had been here before. They sent a pulse wave of something sickening through me, making me want to hurl in a far-off corner.

A bell chimed, clear in the still air, and my feet brushed the glass ground.

"So it begins."

I walked towards the two white couches positioned in the center of the never-ending room, taking no notice of the dark figure gazing into a row of empty mirrors beside them. Flym was already waiting for me, lounging idly on one of the pieces of furniture and she nodded her head at me as I approached, settling myself down opposite of her.

I took a second to admire her as I always did whenever I saw her in a human's disguise. No matter the number of times I spent here with her, her surreal beauty never ceased to awe me. She contrasted with her Guardian Force appearance a great deal, no longer the short little pixie riding a crescent moon and stealing into her enemy's mind.

She stood a bit taller than me, quite possibly at Squall Leonhart's height. She sat proud, her delicate face held high as she watched our only other companion loose himself in his thoughts. Her navy blue hair was held up in her trademark ponytails, though no longer adding to her childish mask but now falling in long waves down her back. The white and red dress I myself personally considered too revealing was gone, replaced by a long white gown with a carefully placed pattern of red and blue scattered stars. A red shawl was around her shoulders, her pale skin almost glowing in the invisible light of this room.

She turned her equally blue eyes to me and smiled in quiet encouragement, and I realized with a sinking heart that she was in one of her more mature moods.

That had never meant anything good for me.

"Are you ready?"

Eriol spoke again, turning to face me from the empty mirrors that held no traces of either him or Flym in their silvery depths. His voice was quiet, all traces of amusement gone, and the round glasses perched on his nose glinting in the light as he furrowed his brows in complementation.

_One of the few times that he calls us up here, and he manages to loose himself yet again._ I sneaked a glance over at the still-patient Flym sitting like a marble statue on her couch and sighed, shifting on the cushions to make myself more comfortable.

_I wonder if this is what my mind is always like. _The thought swam in my head while we waited, and I took the chance to glance around the all-too familiar room once more. _Boring, cold, and empty._

"This is all so soon," Eriol continued muttering again, maybe not realizing that we could still hear him from out positions on the couches. Flym sent him a sympathetic look from under her bangs and I questioned myself for not the first time in my life if they had some sort of conspiracy going on or not.

"I'll be fine," I put in after a few minutes, if only to halt the string of jumbled sentences Eriol was letting out under his breath. The boy looked up, scrutinizing me from behind his glasses for the moment.

"I've spent four years here," I continued, used to his constant stares. At first, it had made me feel uncomfortable whenever he continued to examine me as if I were some precious lab specimen, but I had managed to get over it in time. "I was fine before you came, and I'll be fine now."

Eriol sighed heavily, bringing a hand up to run through his mop of unruly black hair. "That's true," he admitted, more so for my satisfaction than his own.

"Besides," I tried to make my voice light, but I knew I failed horribly to do so. "No matter what I do, everything's staying the same, isn't it?"

"She's right," Flym chimed in from her spot, her voice sweet and melodious in the air. "She may not have been fine _before _you came—" Eriol's eyes narrowed a fragment of an inch, something I couldn't recognize flashing through them before disappearing as fast as it came. "—but everything's okay now." Flym offered a small smile in his direction. "She has me, now, too."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when Eriol's shoulders sagged and he sighed again, smiling crookedly back at the Guardian. "You're right," he said at last, before his eyes turned mischievous and the smile turned into a smirk. "But I don't know about that last part – you're pretty unreliable at times."

Flym's smile erased itself off her face as well and she pouted, crossing her arms in front of her. "You meanie!" She accused, her voice rising in pitch. "That was uncalled for, Eriol!"

The black-haired boy laughed, his shoulders shaking in mirth at her expression, and I knew that the tension of my situation was lifted.

But for how long? When would be the next time that Eriol would call for me to visit this glass room once again?

"So, you _are _prepared, are you not?"

I nodded in answer to Eriol's question and then shrugged, settling deeper into the cushions that seemed so much softer now. "The written test is tomorrow – today, or whatever time it is right now – and then the field exam is rumoured to be the next day after." I raised one of my eyebrows. "Why ask that now when you should do so tomorrow?"

Eriol raised and lowered one shoulder in response and plopped himself down on the armrest of Flym's couch. "Just wondering," he replied, running a hand through his hair again, but this time in boredom. "Out of curiosity, what are you going to do about Flym when the time comes?"

The woman pouted once more, sending a small glare his way. "Oh, yes," she muttered out of the corners of her mouth. "Talk about me as if I'm not here."

I smiled slightly and threw one of the small pillows beside me at her, which she caught with one hand and stuck her tongue out before huddling back into the couch just like I did, with the pillow in her arms. "I'm not sure yet," I replied, fiddling with one of my bangs in a nervous habit. "Would it work if I just said that I obtained her while battling one of the monsters on the mountainside?"

The two opposite of me exchanged looks. "It is possible," Eriol started off slowly, fixing his glasses. "To my knowledge, not too many people go there to train."

"But if they knew that there was a possibility of other Guardian Forces residing there, the Garden Faculty would investigate it without a doubt."

I wrinkled my nose at Flym's mention of the greedy faculty members under NORG's command. I couldn't remember much about the creature that controlled Garden behind the scenes, but I knew he did not care for anything that wouldn't offer him money. Her statement rang true – if I were to say that I got Flym there, at a place that wasn't completely explored, he would send people to scavenge it the next day just in hopes of finding something interesting that could give him profit.

"And if they find nothing there, they may deduce that I was lying," I continued their unfinished thoughts, frowning in thought. "But if I were to say that somebody _gave _Flym to me, that would cause havoc because this 'person' was breaking the rules of Garden." I groaned and closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. "Either way, we're screwed."

"You know," I opened one eye to glance over at Eriol as he continued. "You _could _just never summon Flym, and that would be the end of that."

"No!" Both I and the Guardian in question sat up straighter, glaring at the boy for daring to suggest something such as that. He shrugged as if to say "oh well" and shifted under our heated stares.

"That is quite possibly one of the worst ideas you've ever had, Eriol," I stated, leaning back again. "Flym is a _Guardian Force_, and the fact that she knows what's going on doesn't change that."

Flym bobbed her head up and down in agreement. "Yeah!" She exclaimed, still glaring at the boy. "Whether you like it or not, I still have the instinct to fight so depriving me of that would be _bad._" She emphasized the last word and I had to wonder what exactly would happen if GFs were never summoned while they were under the command of a person.

In theory, I knew, Guardian Forces were tools to most people. They were looked down upon by humans yet were still higher in rank than common monsters, but only because they lent their help to the people from time to time. Nobody, in the entire history of this world, knew exactly how Guardian Forces were created – some said they were the spirits of people after their death, and some just flat-out refused to believe in them since it went against all 'scientific purpose'.

Guardian Forces were rare to find helping people, and even rarer if you stumbled upon them in their natural habitat. I knew that the fire GF, Ifrit, resided in the Fire Cavern southeast of Garden's current position and so I could use him for an example. Most students who weren't participating in the SeeD exams weren't aware of him there, because the area was normally roped off for 'later use'. Others, however – like Squall, Seifer, and myself – knew of Ifrit and so some of us were taken down there in twos or threes to fight him and see if we could pass that part of the test.

But since there were just so little people who could pay a nice little visit to the menacing cave, the other groups were taken for other preliminary tests. There were the normal run-throughs where we just had to show our abilities as fighters, things such as camping out in the Training Center for a set amount of time (and escaping the jaws of hungry T-Rexaurs unscathed) and even more written tests that stretched on to as much as fifty pages in length.

Usually, a low amount of people passed each of these and so it was much easier to conduct the field exams. There were always cities or a group of people in need of Garden's help, and Garden was always happy to help them for a nice amount of money. But back to the Guardian Forces topic, before I go ranting off on Garden's life again.

Garden had a limited amount of GFs, due to their tendency to hide away from humanity. Ones such as Shiva and Quezacotl were happy to be of service to the ones participating in the field exams, and were returned to Garden's clutches when the exam was over. After that, it was up to you to find and obtain your own GF, be it from Drawing from another person, monster, or even nature.

The downfall to using Guardian Forces was the lapse of your memory. Not many people knew of this, since most just skipped to the section where it told them the known Guardian Forces and their abilities. The GFs were often attached to a simple, common-holds object such as stones that showed no life. That was why they couldn't stay without a person for a long period of time – the Guardian Forces settled their spirits in the person's mind, slowly but surely taking up more and more space of the section in which they were in, causing the memory lapses. In a way, the spirits needed to be in contact with a living being in order to survive.

There are certain parts of your brain that act out. The GFs are found in the memory section because whenever a person calls on them, they would have to imagine the GF they were summoning from their memory, in turn calling the summon from their memory when they were a little more than a simple illusion spell. The longer a person had contact with a GF in their mind, the more memories they would have erased in order to make room for the Guardian Force.

The GFs has one basic objective: to fight. The theory that is commonly believed is that if a person has a very strong will, or a cause that they believe in with all their heart and mind, their spirit would be warped to fit their soul and sent from the after life (or something) to help the people down below. The need to fight was imprinted into them, like a microchip in a computer that closed the window whenever you clicked the 'X' button.

So if the GF was refused the ability to fight, their soul would slowly wither away without its purpose, and for lack of any better words - die. There would be no chance to bring them back, and unlike when a GF collapses from undergoing too much strain – just as human get knocked out in battles – where you need to give them the time to recover while their spirit gathers, if the GF was to actually 'die', then its spirit would simply disappear.

"…Yes, we could do that. What do you think? Kira?"

I snapped out of my trance, blinking at the two amused faces of Flym and Eriol before me. "Say what?"

Flym laughed, her voice echoing like bells between the walls. "You're doing it again."

I smiled sheepishly, reaching up to scratch the back of my head. "Sorry."

Eriol shook his head to dismiss it, the smile still present on his face. "Don't worry about it," he muttered, and I got that feeling where he wasn't telling me everything again. Shaking it off, I attempted to get myself back into the conversation.

"So what are we doing in terms of Flym?" I asked and Eriol sighed, leaning back on the couch.

"We'll be going with your idea," he explained, his eyes flickering to the empty reflections (save me) in the mirrors above us. "You'll tell them that you found Flym at the mountains a while ago, and when they don't find anything special there, we figured that they can't prove you're lying."

"Because we like to live with some distance between each other, see?" Flym put in eagerly, clasping her hands before her in excitement. "So when there's nothing to be found there – save for a few nasty monsters – _poof_! It'll all make sense to them, and they can't take me away from you because I'll refuse to leave."

"They can't kick me out for breaking the rules?" I asked, and Eriol and Flym exchanged looks.

"That's why you should get the Guardian they give you for the exam, and summon Flym _after _you become SeeD. That way, they can't really take away your rank without you doing something major."

I nodded slowly at Eriol's explanation, the idea making perfect sense. "And how do you know whether I will become SeeD or not?"

Eriol shrugged, the charming smile he always had on his face returning to its place. "You will. You'll see."

I stared suspiciously at him as he continued smiling. "You're not going to _do _anything to fix the scores up, right?"

He shrugged, but offered no answer. I groaned into my hand, knowing that right now there was no chance of me finding out whether he did so or not.

Abruptly, the room of mirrors shifted and wavered and I sprang up to my feet, startled by the dizzying scenery. It took me a few moments to realize that somebody was waking me up from my sleep and I sat back down on the couch, sinking into its warmth and focusing on falling asleep so I could exit into reality.

"Good luck on the exams today," Eriol offered and I mumbled a "thanks" back to him, already drowsy. My eyes slipped completely closed and I fell into a sleep as I should have a few hours ago, instead of coming to here.

-~o~-

"Dammit, chickie, you gotta wake up if you don't want to be late!"

Bella's form appeared in my eyesight as I blinked open my eyes, shaking me away from my sleep. She removed her hands from my shoulders as soon as she saw that I was successfully awake, smiling down at me.

"You sleep deep, you know that?" She chided, her soft southern-Galbadian accent coming into her voice as she sighed and shook her head from side to side.

"Sorry," I mumbled to her, sitting up to stretch my arms from the stiff feeling traveling to the glass room always left me with. "What time is it?" I chanced a glance at my bedside clock and cursed when the numbers flashed back at me.

_7:30 AM._

"You have fifteen minutes until class starts," Bella instructed, almost as if I didn't know that already. "You've got Professor Quistis this morning for the test, don't you?" She offered me a small, pitying smile. "Better not be late, then." The pity turned into a knowing wink. "I told you Professor Kator is much better – my exam isn't for another hour."

I stuck my tongue out at her at the declaration and hurried to the bathroom, sending a glare to Bella as she laughed at my expense and left for the kitchen. Flym stayed silent in my head during my very short shower and I didn't bother her, knowing that it would take some time for her to regain her energy from appearing in a human disguise.

"Five minutes left!" Sang Bella from the kitchen, throwing me an apple from the doorway as I hurried past her in my clothes for the day (which were my favourite black jeans, some random top and a jean jacket). The hallways outside were bustling with cadets, some laughing and walking with each other while others like me barrelled past them to get on time to class.

The elevator seemed to be slower than always today and with a sinking heart I realized that I would not be making it to homeroom on time. Hanging my shoulders, I sighed and pushed on down the 2nd floor hallway to where my class was located, hoping that I wasn't going to attract too much attention from the amused students inside.

"You're late, Miss Lanning."

I threw a small sheepish smile as Professor Quistis raised a blond eyebrow at me, pausing in her lecturing in the front of the class. A few students snickered at my appearance in the doorway and I ignored them, instead settling for hurrying to my seat in the back.

"Sorry, Professor," I muttered to the blond SeeD as I passed her, all but running to the other side of the room. Quistis shook her head and sighed, but resumed her lecturing.

"As I said before, you will have exactly three hours to complete this exam," her voice drifted off as I slid in to the empty seat beside a brunette girl gossiping with her other neighbour. She sent me a fleeting look and rolled her eyes while I stuck my tongue out at her and turned back, digging through my bag for my pencils.

"I was wondering if you were skipping today," Seifer muttered from behind me, loud enough for me to hear and I leaned back in my seat to glance up at him. "Hoping, actually." He threw me a crooked smirk and I scowled at his expression.

"Keep on dreamin'," I retorted back at him. "I'm becoming a SeeD whatever it takes. …And stop acting like a damn mother-hen. It's strange."

He sent me a glare which I promptly ignored, turning my attention to the front of the class again. I caught Squall's eyes in the row beside Seifer as he swept over the room and grinned at him, feeling satisfied when he turned away from my direction. I, personally, could not wait until he stopped being so brooding and dark so I could stop feeling annoyed at him.

A paper package slid in front of me and I turned it over, scanning over the questions before Quistis could notice. I could see that several of them were not too hard, and the answers were already forming in my mind. I fiddled with my pencil in my hand as Quistis went on to explain the test, glancing out the window in the back of the classroom towards the mountains.

My mind drifted over to what Eriol, Flym and I had discussed not a short while ago. The field test for this would be tomorrow, and that meant that everything was finally starting. I knew that Eriol had already messed with something to fit me in here, but the question was what, in the long run, did he do?

"…Begin."

The shuffle of papers being turned over disrupted the silence of the room and I sighed to myself, looking down at the first question printed neatly on the white surface.

It was going to be a long day.

-~o~-

"Well, that wasn't too hard, I think."

I stretched my arms over my head as I exited after Seifer, attempting to send a grin his way to break the tense atmosphere the test had created in the room behind us. Seifer shrugged in answer and I frowned, knowing when to drop it.

"We have Calculus next, right?" Of course I knew what we had next, but I needed a new subject to start on. "Don't we have a test there, too?"

The blond groaned at the mention, sending me a withering glare. "You just had to remind me, didn't you?" I smiled at him, enjoying the true annoyance I knew had settled over him at the mention of his least favourite class.

Silence settled over us again as we made our way down the hall, and I could feel myself frowning when there was no commentary from Flym echoing in my mind. I tried prodding her, but there was only a sleepy mumble before she was gone again.

My frown deepened, worry for her starting to seep in.

_I'm fine, _she managed to mumble, sensing my distress. _Just tired. Don't worry._

I sighed back at her, wishing that I could just do that. _Okay, _I sent back. _Get well soon. _

She giggled and quieted down again just in time as we reached our classroom. Seifer ran a hand through his hair and sent a glare at the door beside me, to which I just smiled at him and strode in.

"Have fun failing," I called over my shoulder, dodging the swipe he sent at my head at the remark. Laughing, I walked over to where I sat and set my bag down on the table, turning to watch Seifer stride to his spot on the other side of the room before settling deeper into my chair and sighing.

Tomorrow, at this same time of day, would be the beginning of the end – at least, it felt like it.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **several typos, took out some unneeded scenes from the glass room.


	5. The Meaning of SeeD

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me. The lyrics "in the pain, there is healing" belong to the song Broken by Lifehouse. Go listen to it, it's a good song. ___

**Edited 09/26/09**

**

* * *

**_Chapter V  
__**The Meaning of SeeD**_

"Have you heard?"

I looked up from my half-eaten lunch just as Karen plopped herself down across of me with her own tray, flipping a dark ponytail over her shoulder as she did so. Marlene raised her pale blue eyes from her book beside me before returning to it, paying no mind to the gossipy student munching on a peeled orange.

"The SeeD field exam got pushed up to Monday," Karen explained, a sour smile plastered on her face as she bit particularly hard into one of the orange slices. "At least, that's what the people are saying on Garden Square."

Marlene raised an eyebrow at the brunette as she reached for her drink. "You still go on that thing?" She made a face of disapproval and sipped from the plastic straw, closing her book with her other hand before dumping it beside her on the cafeteria table. "They do nothing but babble their lives away there."

"Hey!" Karen's face turned into a pout as she glared at the blond. "That was mean, Marlene."

Marlene shrugged, picking up a grape from her plate and popping it into her mouth. "Do you have any othernews? You know, ones that don't come from _gossip?_"

I hid back my smile as the two continued bickering, insults flying back and forth between the two of them. I was content with staying quiet for the moment and contemplating the news my friend brought with her, and the wondering soon turned to surprise as I realized something.

Either Eriol was messing with something again – which I fully believed he did – or there was something going on here that wasn't mentioned in the game.

I cursed my stupidity a second later, resisting the urge to bash my head against the table and attracting unwanted attention. I was an idiot, I concluded, for ever thinking something like that – of course there were things the game hadn't mentioned! I had spent four years here, and that should have clued me in a long time ago.

Ever since Eriol restored my memories and I had realized that this all was nothing but a game, it became hard to think of it as something more than that. I had no real strong attachment for the place itself before that, and after receiving the news, it didn't make anything change itself for the better.

This wasn't my home. This wasn't….

"_Aren't these nice, Karen?"_

-~o~-

_**Balamb Garden, last summer**_

The bells of Garden begin to echo around us and I lean back against the tree we are sitting at, hiding beneath its lofty branches from the sun blazing on us from high above. I catch Marlene nodding beside me as she flips a page in her book from beneath my eyelids as I tip my head back, letting myself relax against the cool bark underneath my back.

"Mmm, this is the perfect day," Karen agrees on the other side, and I can hear her shift as she attempts to find a comfortable place on the grass.

"Those bells…" The clock chimes fourteen beats and stops, the last one remaining as a ghost in the air. I smile. "I wonder if there's any deeper meaning to them."

Karen snorts and rolls over so she falls into my line of view. She raises one eyebrow and I can blearily see her staring at me, patiently, waiting until I open my eyes fully.

Sighing, I finally do so. "Who knows," I continue on, defending my statement. "Garden is full of symbolism. I don't know; it's like Headmaster has a thing for these things. I mean… who names a military school "Garden"?"

"Well, what does Garden mean to you?" Karen and I glance at Marlene, confused, as she smiles slightly at us back from her spot. "Garden means a lot of things to people. To some, it is just that – a military school. However, there are a lot of kids here who have been here for years; orphans from the last Sorceress War, and those the Headmaster and the faculty have adopted based on their skills. To others, it's escape from home, from their family, or a new adventure." Her eyes switch over to my face and her grin widens. "After all, Kira, Garden adopted you when you had nowhere to go, didn't it?"

I lower my eyes uncomfortably to the ground as the attention is suddenly focused on me. "That's true, but…"

"You know what they say," my friend continues, her voice now soft and condensing. "Home is where the heart is. I've been wondering this for a while, you know. We've known each other for a while now, and I've never heard you call this place 'home'."

Karen rolls over again so her face is facing the sky. "She has a point. You've never told us about your real home."

I blink in surprise. "You want to know about my home?" At their nods, I frown. "Well, I… I still don't remember a lot of it. But it was different from this."

"Which region were you from?" Marlene pipes up, closing the book in her lap as she listens with interest. "I always thought you were from Galbadia, you know. Like Bella. You two have the same coloring, even though you don't talk with the same accent."

I stare back at her in discomfort. I wish Flym was here – but no, Eriol just had to pick this time to take her away to meet about something. "Well… I don't remember where exactly, still. But it was a big house, with the ocean near-by. I had a…" My voice catches. "A little brother. He was seven. We didn't have any pets. My mother and father were out of the house a lot. It wasn't…" I pause, trying to come up with the best way to describe my childhood. "It wasn't a happy life for me, but it was good. I knew my parents loved me, if maybe they didn't show it."

I stop, realizing that I had gone too far. Panic begins to swell within me – Eriol won't be happy. "At least, I think that's what it was. I – my memory, it's still fuzzy. I'd have these dreams, you know, and they'd always be – different –" I break off, knowing there is no way to amend the situation. I lower my gaze to the grass again, praying that they won't ask any more questions.

"So… how did you end up in Balamb?" I refuse to look up at Marlene as she says this – this was bound to come, some time or the other; a person can't stay amnesic for as long as me without at least a small flash of memory. I was – I was just hoping that if I avoided it long enough, it would go away.

"I don't know." I try to keep my voice as light as possible, forcing my mouth to move into a smile. "I guess my brain hasn't been smart enough to catch up to that part yet."

"So you ran away." My head snaps up at Karen's blunt words and I stare at her, surprised. She smirks back at me, upside down, and stretches her arms high above her head, so she can grasp one of mine in hers. She gives it a small squeeze. "I know what it's like to want to search for happiness, you know. Running away is something we all do at one point in time, be it physically or mentally." Seeing my blank look, she begins to laugh. "I know you think that Garden is all brawn, and no brain, but… when people come here, do you know what kind of tests they undergo?"

I shake my head, frowning. "When – when Headmaster asked me if I'd like to stay here and study, he didn't give me many tests – just the basics. Fitness, IQ tests, those things…" Something dawns on me, and I look at Karen in a new light. "You're a transfer student from Trabia, aren't you?"

She nods, letting go of my hands and flipping herself upright again, so she's lying down on her stomach, propped up by her hands. "That's right. And Trabia is very different from Balamb, just like Balamb is very different from Galbadia. Trabia is more… well, you know how it's all snowy, and there are a lot of mountains in the region, right?" The question is directed at both Marlene and I, and we nod. "Well, unlike Balamb, which has a town situated near by, Trabia doesn't have that, so we sometimes have monsters wandering in, unafraid, since Trabia doesn't have any big cities or towns around it. The nearest one is several kilometres down the road, far away from the Garden itself. But anyway," she offers a sheepish smile, shaking herself out of her memories. "Maybe I'll show you both Trabia, someday, personally. Like I was saying – we'd have monsters like Dragons and Coeurls coming in, and more often than not, the professors there let the students deal with them." She catches mine and Marlene's surprised looks and grins, squeezing one of her hands into a fist.

"It's because we live in the mountains, you know." She explains. "It's easy to get lost in there, and the monsters there are brutal from the harsh climate. Food for them is hard to get. So the faculty likes to see us dealing with them – just in case we ever got lost in the mountainside, you know? They figure it's better to teach us how to defend ourselves properly somewhere where they can step in and help if needed, instead of being defenceless and all alone, scared out of our wits if we come upon one in the wild."

"Trabia is known for its great survival program," Marlene finally says, after a moment of silence passes as we try to filter this new information into our minds. "Quite a few people who transfer from there to here pass as SeeDs, due to their ability to think clearly."

Karen's grin stretches. "That's right! So, like I was saying… being a SeeD is tough. You have to be ready for it, both physically and mentally." Her face softens. "You're not really allowed to comment on what it is you do, you know? If your contractor says you have to kill this person, you don't question _why_, or you don't wonder about their lives, their families… their anything. Being a SeeD… it's like being a murder for hire. Well, assassin – that's what it is." She attempts at a laugh, but the comfortable mood between us is broken, and I let my head fall back against the bark of the tree.

"I've never really thought about it that way," I comment, gazing up at the sky. "Well, I haven't though about it _much_, anyway. It's…"

"Uncomfortable." Marlene finishes for me, keeping her own gaze fixed focused on the ground. "That's why not everybody who attends Garden graduate as a SeeD. Some can't pass the exams, some can't handle what being a SeeD limits you to."

"Yeah." Karen twists a lock of dark brunette hair between her fingers, drawing circles in the grass with the other. "That's why I said I know what it's like searching for happiness – I ran away from Trabia, once, when I was a kid. I…" She falters, staring at the patterns she is making, before shrugging. "A group of SeeDs had come to Trabia, that week. Everyone was so excited – I remember people whispering, pointing them out as they walked by. We were all so small back then, just children. A lot of people wanted to be like them at that point in time. They had the people's respect, they were paid, they had the privileges no other civilian or soldier had… they were their own force. And there was this girl there, you know? She was our age, now. I remember her really well, because she was a martial artist – like me."

She offers us a small smile, her eyes glazing over as she begins to get lost in memories. "It was like seeing my dream standing right in front of me. They were so nice, too, especially the girl. I never found out her name, but she would sit in on our martial arts class, observing us, giving us encouragement. I wanted to be like her, when I grew up. I would have these fantasies of me as a SeeD, travelling the world with my team, visiting all these new places, executing missions perfectly." Her face, always pale from spending so much of her life in Trabia, colors slightly. "It's all kind of embarrassing now that I think back on it, but what can I do? I was small back then – eleven or twelve I think – and that was the only future I had planned out." The smile on her face as she talks disappears, and is abruptly replaced with a scowl. "And then one day, we found out what the SeeD were really there for – it was in the middle of class, and suddenly there's all this screaming coming from the outside."

She pauses, lowering her head so her hair hides her eyes. Beside me, Marlene shifts and I stifle my own shudders. The brunette girl visibly shakes away the hold the memories have on her and looks up at us again, meeting our eyes straight on.

"So we go out to see what it is, you know? And it's right there – the group of SeeDs, carrying the dead body of one of our Professors. I never had him, but he was one of the Professors who taught the older grades. It's snowing, too, and there's this trail of blood left behind them as they walk, the body between them still fresh with several gunshot wounds and scrapes." I can hear Marlene draw in a sharp breath beside me.

"And the others—?" She gets cut off as Karen shakes her head.

"The faculty knew all about it," she answers the question, her voice bitter as she clenches the stems of grass between her fingers. "That man, supposedly, was planning his own assassination on someone on the Board of Governors. Trabia, or Galbadia, or even Balamb – I don't even know – had somehow managed to get hold of it, and Cid sent the SeeDs out. Apparently Trabia paid quite a sum for it to be kept quiet."

A pregnant silence shifts over us, and it's a few minutes before my friend begins to speak again, her voice quiet. "I could see that girl walking beside them, the gloves on her hands all covered in red. And it was like… like seeing that dream, shattering, and right in front of my eyes. Her own eyes, even from where I was standing, looked so empty, that I got scared, and… and ran. I don't know where I was hoping to go at the time – I just wanted to get away." She trails off, sighing. "I didn't want to be someone like her – I didn't want to _kill _anybody, really, I just wanted to be a _SeeD_, to have that _respect _from others. I guess I just hadn't fully thought about what it was to be one. So I ran, stupid and alone, into the mountainside of Trabia, hoping that there was something beyond that Garden where I could find happiness."

"Then why are you still here? Do you want to take revenge on SeeD?" Marlene challenges, meeting Karen's eyes head on – the brunette stares right back at her for a moment, before laughing.

"Because what else was I supposed to do?" The all-too familiar smirk slips into place on her face, and she grins sharply at Marlene. "I straightened myself out, that day on the mountains – I was there, for what, several hours? It was getting cold, and dark, and I knew the monsters would come out soon, detecting my presence. What would have you chosen, Marlene? Would you have died there because you couldn't face the truth, or would you go back and go on with your life?" The blonde stays quiet, unable to answer, and Karen nods, satisfied.

"There's a phrase," I speak up suddenly, searching deep inside of my mind for the words I need. "_In the pain, there is healing_. If we always run away from the things that hurt us, we'll never find the real answer. We'll never get better."

Karen nods again. "That's right. And that's why I'm here, now – because I'm still looking for that happiness, for that answer as to why SeeD exists. And if it means becoming a SeeD myself, becoming a murderer, then so be it. That is my goal."

Marlene scoffs, turning her head to gaze out at the court below us. "That is a stupid goal. You'll become what you can't understand just because there is a chance of you finding that answer?"

The brunette looks on at her in amusement. "Then what's your goal, Marlene? Why do _you _want to become a SeeD? Is it to be recognized? Is it for the money? For the power that comes with the title?" When she doesn't answer, Karen shakes her head and sighs. "Do you even want to become a SeeD?" She asks, her voice softer.

The blonde girl shifts, and I trace her gaze to where the land meets the ocean, far away on the horizon. "You don't, do you?" I say as the realization suddenly hits me, and slowly, Marlene shakes her head.

"I'm too nice to kill somebody," she says, quietly, not meeting our eyes. "I thought that if I attended here, I could become stronger. And I have. But I still can't take life away from anybody. It's just… not fair, you know? To rid someone of their chance to live, while I still walk on…"

"You're not made for the battlefield," Karen agrees, smiling at her sympathetically. "Anyone can tell us, from the trashy romance novels that you read."

Marlene's head turns around so fast that I am surprised that I don't hear a snap. Her whole face and neck are starting to color as she glares at her friend. "Hey! Those are really good! And you know, I've _caught _you trying to get a peek over my shoulder!" A teasing leer begins to tug at the corners of her lips. "You know, if you wanted to read them yourself, you could just _ask…_"

Now it is Karen's turn to turn red as she scowls, sitting herself upright and crossing her arms over her chest in embarrassment. "Yeah, right! As if I would ever be caught reading something – something like that!"

I stare in surprise as my two best friends abruptly go from arguing over something important to arguing over something so – so _un_important. "You know," I pipe up after listening to them exchange insults back and forth for a few moments. "You guys never answered if you thought the clock bells had any special meaning or not."

Karen snorts, back to her old, impeccable self. "That's all they are, obviously. It's much easier than having a clock in every part of Garden, you know."

I push on, persistent, determined to prove myself right. "Well, okay – but what pops up into _your _mind when you hear the bells? I'm sure that whenever an outsider hears them, that's all they are to them ­– _clock bells_. But we've spent so much time here that it has to mean something different, right?"

Marlene frowns, reverting her gaze back to the ocean. "What it means…" she mumbles to herself, putting one finger at the bridge of her nose in thought. "Well... I guess…"

"It means 'home'," Karen interrupts her, lying back on the ground, satisfied with her answer. "That's what you're trying to get at, right, Kira? That's what this place is to _you – _poor little Kira, who can't remember anything else in the world." She laughs, somewhat mockingly, and I flush at her words.

"This place is _not _my home!" I complain hotly, but Marlene is now laughing beside me as well, falling backwards to lay spread-eagle beside me.

"Kira and Garden, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Karen begins to chant and I stare at her in part horror, part embarrassment.

"T-that doesn't even make sense! Karen! Stop that! I didn't mean it like that!

-~o~-

"_Karen! Stop that right now or I'm throwing you into that fountain before you can say 'please'!! KAREN!"_

_**Balamb Garden, present time**_

A lump caught in my throat. I didn't want to consider this place home, even after all the years of living here, and studying and befriending people that I met, or the anticipation that I felt at the prospect of becoming a SeeD and going out into the world on my own – and so many other things to do, to live through…

"So, what's going on between you and Seifer?"

I blinked into the expectant faces of my friends and forced the lump down.

"What do you mean?" I made sure my voice didn't catch before I asked, not wanting them to ask questions. Picking up a piece of lettuce from my salad, I watched Karen wiggle her eyebrows suggestively as I put it in my mouth.

"Come on!" She exclaimed, waving her hands around for emphasis. "We _know _there's something there! Just tell us what it is!"

Marlene muttered a _'it's none of your business'_ under her breath but I could see her watching with interest out of the corners of her eyes when I shifted on my seat, running a finger over the metal rim of my drink in disinterest.

"What do you mean?" The curiosity in my voice wasn't entirely fake – nobody has ever touched upon the subject of Seifer and me, due to his bad popularity. But, then again, if anyone were to do it, it would be Karen.

Said girl shot me an exasperated look. "Are you really that oblivious?" She groaned when I blinked at her, awaiting an explanation. "You, him," she twisted her pointer and middle finger together in a motion that I didn't get. At all.

"Are you together, yet?" Marlene finally burst out beside me, her book now forgotten beside her.

I stared some more. "Oh, that?" The two sighed, Karen going as far as to bang her head on the table a few times. "Why would you think that?"

The brunette shot me a glare. "We've seen how you two act around each other—" she rolled her eyes in synchronization with Marlene. "—how he looks at you, how you always wait up for him, how you two _talk_…" She trailed off, deciding that she had made her point.

I felt the beginnings of a frown etching itself onto my face. "We've been friends for a very long time," I put emphasis on the 'friends', sighing before taking a sip of the caffeinated drink before me.

It was Marlene who hit her hand against her book this time, to my surprise. "For the love of God, Kira!" She exclaimed, turning her pretty face to look me in the eyes, determination sparkling like fire in her own. "When will you two get over your egos and finally admit that you two have a thing for each other?"

I stared at her, still not comprehending.

"Run that by my again?" I requested innocently, gripping the pop can between my fingers now. Karen banged her fist on the table – sending everything shuddering due to her immense martial artist strength – and leaned closer to me.

"You." Her eyes narrowed into slits, the hiss in her voice rising with every second. "Are." She stood up from her seat, still glaring, intent on making her thoughts known. Idly, I noticed the passing stares we received from the nearby tables. "In love—" A ton of heads swivelled our way at the words and the cafeteria quieted down a notch, always loving these informative scenes.

Karen's near shouting wasn't helping, either.

"With—"

Marlene's eyes strayed over my shoulder for a moment and I could see her hiding a laugh. Three sets of footsteps approached us, but Karen was on a roll and I had a feeling that I didn't want to miss her next words, no matter how bad the feeling blossoming in my stomach was.

"—SEIFER ALMASY, dammit."

Karen sat back down, crossing her arms over her chest in satisfaction and smirking at the quiet that descended upon the room. Her eyes then turned behind me, and her face abruptly paled. I wondered what was so funny behind me.

"Oh? Do say that again, please."

I craned my head backwards at the familiar, sarcastic drawl and found myself looking upside down at the amused face of said Seifer Almasy. Fujin and Raijin stood behind him, the latter gaping in shock at the still figure of Karen as she stared at the trio.

"Hello, Seifer," I greeted, deciding that the frightened stare on Karen's face was due to the bloody gunblade Seifer tapped against his leg almost nonchalantly, staining the dark pants he was wearing, but the young man in question seemed beyond caring. "Back from training so soon?"

He shrugged and drew up a chair, plopping himself down upon it. "Yeah. Somebody's got to clean up all those T-Rexaurs, you know." He sent a bold wink at the pale-as-snow Karen across from us. "So, what's this I'm hearing about you being in love with me?" I stayed silent at this, trying to find an answer to that. Thankfully, a rescue came to me in non other than a rather annoyed woman.

"ENOUGH." Fujin's loud voice abruptly cut the air around us as she sent a furious glare at the watching crowd. Some visibly paled under her gaze and ducked their heads, while others just turned away silently, back to their own business. The usual chatter of the cafeteria started up again in a few seconds, but I could catch the passing words of '_Lanning_', '_Seifer_', and '_relationship_'. With a sinking heart, I realized that this was going to be going around the school as gossip for the next few days.

"Are we?" I retorted back, deciding with a twisted twinge of amusement to taunt Karen a bit more – she never learned to keep her mouth shut, so maybe this would be a good experience for her. "Because if we are, we certainly have a lot to talk about."

Seifer smirked at me, his eyes dancing in amusement. "Pfft." He snorted, leaning back on the chair and sending me a sideways look. "As if someone could ever love a moody trigger-happy psycho like you."

One of my eyes twitched at the insult as it always did whenever we argued. "Of course," I replied back sarcastically, rolling my eyes underneath my bangs, reminding myself to get a haircut soon. My aim would be horrible if I couldn't even _see _past my own hair. "And of course there's no one who could even come close to loving an arrogant jackass like you." Other than that Rinoa girl from later.

"B-but…"

We turned our attention back to Karen as she unthawed, her eyes flying between me and Seifer in confusion. "But you're so perfect for each other!" Marlene smiled in a way that I knew she agreed, but she remained silent as always instead of participating.

Seifer raised one eyebrow at Karen and sneered, as if daring her to say anything more. She paled again, but less than the last time, and sent me a withering stare that screamed _'I'll be back with this later'_ and jumped up with her tray and bag in hand.

"I gotta go," she muttered, pushing past her chair and stalking towards the garbage cans. Marlene sighed and took another drink of her lemonade before returning to her book.

Seifer and I exchanged glances before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. The blonde student beside us sighed again and frowned in our direction, doing a poor job of hiding her amusement.

"You guys are so cruel, you know…? That image of a bloody Seifer is going to haunt her dreams for a few nights, and _I'm _going to be the one who has to put up with it…" She groaned.

"Geez, Kira, way to make friends with the devil, of all people…"

My coke burst out of my nose as I struggled to contain my giggles.

-~o~-

"Oi, Kira?"

I brought my eyes up from the homework I was doing as Bella hovered in the doorway of my room in a way unlike her, staring at me with suspicion in her eyes. "You haven't _done _anything lately, have you?"

I frowned at her, remembering the fact that my last sneak-out out of Garden was months ago. "No, why?"

She shrugged, the actions causing her shoulders to relax. "The Headmaster wants to see you. A faculty member was just here requesting for you to come to the his office."

My eyes widened at this, just as Bella's most likely did when she received the news. There were a lot of troublemakers at Garden, for sure, but they were dealt with the Garden faculty stationed throughout the building. Few ever got called up to see the Headmaster – busy as he was – and I couldn't help the shock that ran through me. The last time I had been there was years ago, when I was caught outside after curfew with Karen and Marlene for the first time.

"…Okay then," I murmured, standing up to grab a jacket and slipping my arms through it. Bella disappeared back to her room, shooting me a curious smile when I walked past her door. I smiled back and shrugged in answer which translated to _'I have no idea what the hell is going either'_ and made sure to lock the door behind me as I exited.

It was late, and I could see a few students here and there as they made their way either to the dormitories past me, or to the Training Center. I could swear I caught sight of Squall Leonhart's back as it disappeared into that general direction. I snorted – sometimes, he and Seifer were so alike. I headed past the Common Rooms of the dorms, noting idly the few students lounging around, some already asleep – others bent over tables, scribbling frantically at papers laid out before them. Another several minutes brought me past the canals filled with water and the statues stationed in them, deciphering various sea creatures in a repeated pattern, until I was waiting nervously for the elevator to arrive.

Thankfully, I was alone as it brought me up to the 3rd floor of Garden, opening up to show the grand interior of the room. An expensive-looking, maroon carpet was laid out on the floor, leading up to wooden double-doors and matching maroon curtains hung low to the ground over the windows. A desk was set to the side – mahogany and just plain shiny-looking, to my greatest amusement – with a woman sitting behind it, writing something down slowly on the papers in front of her.

She glanced up as the elevator doors shut behind me, sending me a bright smile my way as she straightened and took in my appearance. "Miss Kira Lanning?" She asked and I realized that I was being expected. An agitated shudder ran through my body at this.

At my affirmative nod she smiled again and stood up – she was a low-ranking SeeD, apparently, by her uniform and badge – to make her way to the double doors. "Wait here a moment, please. I will tell the Headmaster that you are here to see him."

I did as she instructed, playing with the edges of my jacket nervously. Was this about the incident in the cafeteria? Relationships in Garden weren't prohibited, but they weren't too supported, either. And a relationship with someone like Seifer, no less – he was known as the most trouble-making student here.

"The Headmaster will see you now."

I entertained the thought of the woman actually being a well-advanced robot (with her constant smiles and voice and all) as I followed her through the doors into Cid Kramer's office. She shut said doors behind her as she left with another smile (that were becoming annoying very fast) and I turned in the direction of the center of the room, snapping into a salute at the sight of the Headmaster. There were three other students here, all around my age, looking as nervous as I felt.

"At ease," Cid said and all four of us dropped our tense stances, though I could see them not being as relaxed as people normally were. The man cleared his throat, crossing his arms behind his back as he moved to stand in front of us.

"I'm sure you are all wondering what you are doing here," he began and the male student beside me muttered a _No duh_, causing me to smile slightly. "Be assured, none of you are here for a lecture." Cid smiled and the tension in the room dropped a margin. "However, you all have been called here for a reason."

He started pacing, looking a tinge anxious as we followed him with our eyes. "I am not certain whether you are aware of some of the programs we have here at Garden—" I raised an eyebrow at this, intrigued. "—But one of them includes the Garden exchange program."

My heart dropped lower than the bowels of Hell. _Oh no no no…_

"This is not too well-known to most of Garden's student population, since it only happens once every few years or so." Cid paused, sweeping his eyes over us. I was trying my best not to let my body tremble, but the student beside me caught his breath. "And it seems that the time has come again."

"Headmaster, you sure do enjoy making speeches."

Our heads turned to the source of the voice, its speaker appearing from the shadows of the room in which we failed to notice him. His thin blond hair was smoothed back, and his black military outfit seemed to gleam with all the medals plastered on him. He sent a tight smile at our Headmaster and then turned to us, watching with hawk-like eyes. I resisted the urge to bite my lip in worry as his eyes swept carelessly over me.

"The four of you here have been chosen to leave Balamb and immigrate to Galbadia Garden until you turn the age of twenty, as have four other students from Galbadia and Trabia Garden." His voice had a bored drawl in it, and I stifled the growl rising in my throat at his words. "This is merely to intermingle the students of the three institutes and spread what they have learned," here, he smirked, glancing over each and every one of us again. "Of course, this will be _after _the SeeD field exam this coming Monday, and it is expected out of all of you—" His eyes narrowed as he paused at myself and the girl standing to my left at the end of the line, disapproval clearly visible in them. "—to pass and to show the pride of your Garden. You will have no choice in the matter at hand."

We stared, almost gaping at this man and his cold words.

Cid sighed and rubbed a hand against his forehead before sending a small smile at us. "I suggest you start packing your bags tonight and brush up on all your skills." He nodded, and sending a dismissal, we saluted him again. "You're free to leave now, cadets."

The four of us strode out of the office – two male and two female, including me, students – with all of us in either shock or seething. For me, it was the latter of the two.

"Who the hell was that man?" I muttered to the pretty brunette beside me, glaring holes into the elevator's walls as we descended. "He just… he just…"

The girl sighed, looking at me in sympathy but I could tell by the way her fingers twitched every once and then that she wanted to hurt something as much as I did.

"That was the Galbadia Garden's Headmaster, or commonly known as Martine," she explained dryly, watching the buttons on the wall light up. "Quite the charming old man, don't you think? I bet he has all the ladies falling over themselves for him."

I groaned in answer and stormed out of the elevator as soon as it pinged open, imagining the floor I was stomping upon now was Martine's drawn, rat-like face. Something was going wrong here, and without Flym's responses (she was still deep in her sleep), I needed some answers from Eriol.

I was _not _going to leave Balamb Garden – with all the people I knew and the familiarity I had here – without a good enough explanation. If I didn't get that, well, I was certain that nobody would mind if I blasted a few holes in Eriol's nonexistent brain.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **a new scene between Kira, Marlene and Karen, touching a bit on Trabia Garden's habitat and the nature of SeeD. Slight dialogue changes at Martine's scene.


	6. Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/27/09**

**

* * *

**_Chapter VI  
__**Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill**_

"What do you _mean _you don't know what's going on either!?"

Two voices clashed together in the empty Training Center of Balamb Garden, one high-pitched and nearing panic, as opposed to the calm and slightly strained one. A T-Rexaur roared in the distance in response to the yell but the two figures ignored it, knowing that the creature would not be able to breach the barrier set up around them.

A warm artificial breeze ruffled the lush greenery of the fake jungle, sending the sweet aroma of its fruits and berries into the air. A Grat shuffled past, dragging itself by its long tentacles with a backward glance to the duo standing in the middle of the field. Seeing none of them paying attention to it, an equivalent of a monster smile – or as much as a plant could smile, anyway – appeared, invisible, before it began its trek to what it hoped was a meal.

"Exactly what I said," Eriol reproached the subject with a steady note in his voice, fighting off the glare that threatened to show itself behind his glasses. "I don't know if you think of me as some sort of god to this world or not, but there are things that I _can't _take control of."

A sinking feeling settled into Kira's heart at his words, and she bit back the stinging words burning at the tip of her tongue. Clenching and unclenching her fists by her sides, she ignored her blurring vision and focused on Eriol. _Don't let yourself cry, _she instructed herself as the wetness prickled in her eyes. _Don't cry, don't panic, and don't show any more emotion. _"But then, how am I going to be able to get home?"

Eriol rolled his shoulders, briefly wondering as to when he had adapted to such human motions. Pushing the thought away, he returned to pacing the distance between the looming tree at the edge of his barrier and the center of the field where his charge stood. He had hoped to enlist Flym's help in order to do this, but the Guardian Force he had assigned to the frail – as much as she would oppose to the claim – child was currently out of his reach, buried deep in sleep in her companion's mind.

Reaching up with his hands to rub at his temples in hopes of settling the tension he felt in his body and painfully aware of Kira watching his every movement with hawk-like eyes, he cursed under his breath and shot a withering glare at a patch of yellowed dirt beneath his feet. Everything was going perfect – as perfect as it could, at least – and according to his plan before the planet decided to interfere!

It was at times like this that he wished he hadn't agreed to The Request – as he called it in his mind – and stayed happily asleep in his—

He cut off the thought before his mind could finish it.

"You'll be with them again," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, loud enough for the redhead to hear, and relaxed his eyes to resume his normal, blank face. "I'll make sure of that."

She relaxed her shoulders as well, but he could see the calculating look measuring him in her grey eyes. A movement in the corners of his eyes caught his attention and he glanced towards the barrier, an amused smile lifting at his lips as the Grat flung out its tentacles at his creation once more. The lights visibly flickered in the air as it repelled the monster, disappearing for a second only to appear again a moment later.

"Stupid monster," his ears caught Kira's muttering as she took out the gun strapped to her thigh, clicking off the safety before shooting a bullet at the monster with a _bang_. The Grat gave a startled squeal and flailed for a second, snapping a tentacle in the cadet's direction, before it turned tail and disappeared into the greenery.

"So, even you weren't aware of this happening?"

Eriol returned his attention to the girl, examining her as she put her weapon away into its holster on her right leg. She turned her eyes back to his, waiting for an answer, and he finally shrugged and resumed his pacing.

"This is not the exact replica of the world you knew," he started, although he knew she barely remembered all of the details of the game she played years ago. "So no, I didn't. This is just the natural course of it."

Kira groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead in frustration. "Wonderful, then. So I just go and play along, moving out and then maybe never seeing these people again?" She pretended to pause in thought, the sarcastic tone in her voice increasing with every scathing word. "Oh, and never go home, yeah?"

Eriol smiled, refusing to show his charge that her ranting was getting on his nerves. "Exactly. Now, go along and be a dear little girl – your exam starts tomorrow. I believe you have packing to do as well."

Kira outright snarled at him – reminding the dark haired boy of another girl so similar but _no he had to chase those thoughts away _– before stalking past the crumbling Protega field, her back to the world and never seeing Eriol's pleasant smiles crumble just as fast into a look that just embodied pure and simple _pain_.

The boy who wasn't quite a boy who didn't really understand what he was becoming at all turned on his heels and disappeared without a moment to spare.

-~o~-

_**Last Night, Balamb Dormitories**_

_"So."_

_"Don't look at me like that."_

Tick. Tick. Tick.

_"It's not my fault."_

_"You must have done __something__!"_

_"All I remember doing was being a good student. God just hates me."_

_"If you say so."_

_Kira whirled on her heels, sending a begging glare at the blond girl sitting across of her, leafing through a Galbadian booklet. The redhead caught an image of the school's sterile halls before it disappeared and winced._

_Bella ignored her roommate's pleas, refusing to take in the sight of the other female cadet stuffing her stuff hazardously into an already over-flowing suitcase. Finished with the short, non-informative booklet in her hands, she threw it onto the coffee table before her and curled in farther into the couch._

_"I still have until Monday," Kira said again after a few moments of silence, still trying to amend the rift growing between her and her friend. "If I fail the SeeD exam, then maybe…" She trailed off._

_Her words got the desired effect and Bella sprung up as quick as a drenched cat, narrowing her eyes at the back of her roommate. "You will __not__!" She hissed, clenching her hands into tight fists by her sides. "You even dare to try, and I swear I'll…"_

_Kira raised a triumphed eyebrow and the blond caught on quick enough, hiding her smile with a groan. "It wouldn't be the same here without you, you know." She raised the corners of her lips in a lopsided smirk. "Our little miracle child."_

_The older of the two picked up a stray shirt and, balling it in her hands, hurled it at her friend with a loud laugh. Bella dodged it, laughing as well, and retaliated with a small couch cushion._

_Just for the time being, the two could indulge themselves in the special moment, forgetting the twist fate had thrown at them._

-~o~-

_**Present Day, Monday morning**_

Kira awoke to the sound of Garden's bells chiming a clear, soothing melody. Shifting in her bed, she settled her eyes on the clock blinking red numbers to the right of her head.

_Good morning, sleepy head! _Flym giggled in the back of her mind and the redhead's mood rose immediately. She sat up and threw off the covers, basking in the sunlight seeping in through the blinds in her window.

_You're awake! _She cried back, a smile stretching over her face. _It's strange, not having your annoying voice chattering away in my mind,_ she teased in good humour, pacing her room to grab Garden's uniform and start the trek past Bella's dorm into the bathroom.

_Oh, shush! _Flym scolded back, catching on to her companion's light tone. _What have you been up to these past hours without me to get you out of trouble?_

Kira grimaced, remembering the happenings of the previous day. Flym, seeing the reluctance to talk about it, shifted through a few choice memories before speaking up again.

_That bastard Martine! _Were the first words out of her mouth and Kira agreed whole-heartedly, rinsing her hair off quickly under the spray of the shower head. _How can he just decide to come and take you, of all people, away!? Why, when Eriol hears of this…_

_Eriol already knows, _the girl was quick to inform the Guardian Force, much to both of their dismay. _I talked to him. He says that since this is a different variation of the world the games takes place in, some things are bound to happen that weren't supposed to._

_Or who knows, _she thought to herself, a slight chill seeping through her body at the reminder. _Maybe this did happen after all; it just wasn't important enough for anybody to know. _

Sighing, she stood under the warm water for a few more minutes, listening with only one ear to Flym's enraged mumblings. Smiling grimly, she stepped out at last and wrapped a towel around herself before facing the marble sink placed into a grey countertop. She glanced into the mirror, and did a double take.

"_Our Reunion… so long… finally, I'll be there with you once more…"_

Her mouth formed words against her will, silently, but she knew what she was saying nevertheless, and it sent her blood cold throughout her body.

_I've missed you quite terribly._

_-_~o~_-_

"_Mommy, what are you working on? Daddy won't tell me and said to go ask you."  
"I'm sorry sweetie, but it's nothing of importance. Why don't you head outside and play with your friends?"_

"Mom, why is that weird man looking at me like that?"

"What are you doing, —?"

"_Daddy, who's that weird man? He scares me…"  
"…He's no one you should worry about, dear. How about heading to that ice-cream shop you like for some dessert?"_

"—on! Come _on!!_"

"Not so fast, now… you don't want to hurt yourself."

"_I'm worried about her, truthfully. She hasn't been eating properly for the past few days – a child her age needs all the nutrients she can get."  
"Might it be connected to the "accident" that happened? Children tend to pick up on these things after a few days…"_

"…new... —? But, I like it here…I like you…"

"_His brainwaves seem to be normal; why, he just might be our first succeeded experiment!"  
"I congratulate you, Professor Liring, you seem to have outdone yourself this time! With his help…just think of all the possibilities!"_

"Why, hello there, sweetie. What's your name? We're Mrs.— and Mr.—."

"…I'm—" (who am I, **who are you, **what am i doing here - _what?_) "…Kira."

"It's nice to meet you, Kira."

-~o~-

She was brought back with a gasp, her fingers clenching the edges of the countertop hard enough to set angry welt marks into her skin.

_Flym, what was that!? _She cried in a blind panic, gasping in air to replenish her lungs. When there was no reply from the fairy look-alike, she tried again. _Flym!!_

_I…I don't know, _she finally replied, genuine confusion seeping into her voice. _Kira? Are you going to be okay?_

"I'll be fine," she managed to grind out through her clenched teeth, the need to hear her own voice and not someone else's (_what?_) disappearing into thin air as fast as it had come.

_That's good, _Flym sighed, already reverting back to her normal self. _Oh, no! You should probably hurry up if you don't want to miss your field test!_

Brushing her red bangs away from her eyes, Kira grabbed for her toothbrush and set her mind to forgetting what had just happened.

After all – it was all that she could do.

~o~

**Kira Lanning**

I slide into my seat in front of Seifer just as the final bell rings, signalling the start of morning classes. He looks up for a moment as I plop my stuff down with a groan beside me, grinning slightly, before looking down again.

"Good morning," I smile as I turn around in my seat – Professor Quistis isn't here and I need anything, _anything _to help me get my mind off what happened earlier – and lean my hands onto his table, propping my chin between my hands. "What's up?"

He glances up again, and it takes a few moments for Eriol's whispered words in my mind to set in, because all I can focus on is the _scar between his eyes and oh my god—_

_It's begun, _Eriol's words echo in my head, bouncing off each other until my thoughts are nothing but a jumbled mess.

Seifer catches me staring at his face – in particular, his _scar _– and mistakes my horror for something else. An ugly sneer twists at his lips and he jerks his head in the direction to his left, where a figure is slumped backwards in their chair.

"Training got a little rough," the blond mutters and I follow his cue, turning my head slowly just enough to catch Squall glance up into space for a moment – his identical scar to Seifer's so plain visible on his face as the sun – before hanging his head again in a doze.

I stifle the urge to hurl.

"I bet you cheated," my automatic reply sets in with some help from Flym, because I'm still reeling from what's happening because _I refuse to accept it dammit no! _and Seifer scoffs, confirming my suspicions.

"Doesn't matter," he scowls and brings up one gloved hand to trace the line marring his face. "What's done is done."

I find myself nodding before resisting the urge to reach up my hand and trace the scar just to make sure it's _real _and not some twisted trick of my mind. However, just then, the automatic doors ping open and Quistis strides in, a stack of papers held loosely in her hands. Placing them on her gigantic and somehow too clean desk, she turns to us and appraises the students with her eyes.

We shift as one body, sensing something electrical dancing in the air.

"Good morning class!" She greets us with false cheer. "Let's start with today's schedule. There seems to be some rumours flying around since yesterday…" The students start to whisper and I have a good idea of what it is. Quistis clears her throat and the class turns quiet again.

"Yes," she continues. "The field exam for SeeD candidates will begin later this afternoon. Those not participating and those who failed last week's test are to remain here in study hall. Field exam participants will have free time until the exam. Just be sure you're in top condition. Meet in the hall at 1600 hours. I'll announce the team assignments there. Any questions?" She pauses, but when no hands go up, she stands up and gives a cold look towards where Seifer and I are sitting. Specifically, right behind me.

"Oh, and Seifer…" The class turns to stare at the emotionless cadet in question. "Do _not _injure your partner while training." Quistis's words cut coldly through the tense air and Seifer sneers back at her while leaning back in his chair, the perfect aloof image back in place.

"Whatever you say, dear Professor," he drawls and Quistis narrows her eyes before dismissing the student body with a sharp wave of her hand.

_It's sad, _Flym pipes up, her voice contemplating. _How no one seems to care that the boy got hurt as well. _Indeed, I manage to catch a few sympathetic looks directed mostly in Squall's direction, which seems to rile him up all the more.

Quistis's voice floats to the back of the classroom where we are over the aimless chatter of her students. "Squall, I need to talk to you."

"You both are fools," I snarl under my breath just loud enough for the brunette "lone wolf" to hear as he passes past my seat, sending me a glare as he catches the words which turn into slight curiosity. Seifer overhears me as well, and I can feel his eyes glaring into my back before he sends a stray notebook of his flying to my head.

I catch it before it hits me and turn around in my seat to talk with him, not curious in the slightest as the other students are about what Squall and Quistis are talking about up front. "There are other ways to settle your disputes that do _not _involve permanent damage."

A small frown flits about Seifer's face as he follows my words, and he leans in forward, lowering his voice so the others around us can't hear. "You're more worried than usual," he says, his eyes calculating as he watches my expressions change.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" A girl to the right of us managed to overhear after all, and I recognize her as one of Bella's friends. Her eyes dart between me and a calm Seifer, before her eyes light up with the knowledge that she knows something we don't.

"Oh?" Seifer raises one brow coolly, and I feel satisfaction at seeing the nosy girl give a small flinch at his tone of voice.

"Well," she sniffs; pausing for what I assume is dramatic effect. "Bella—" Here, she sends me a look. "Told me that the Garden exchange program has started up again this year. And guess who got chosen?" She smirks in triumph and turns away – though I can still see her listening in – as Seifer's eyes turn back in my direction.

"Not here," I manage before he says anything, standing up and gathering my school stuff. He does the same, shifting his bag onto one of his shoulders.

"Lead on, then," he mutters as if he couldn't care less, but I catch the warning undertone in his voice and the betrayal of me not mentioning a word of anything to him.

We walk of out of the classroom, much to the entertainment of the nosy girl who ruined everything in the first place, and her circle of friends – I can hear them whispering to each other just as the doors shut behind us.

_It's not like I wasn't planning on telling him, _I growl to myself and to Flym as we continue down the deserted hallways, most classes still being in session.

_Really now, _my GF muses and I give a small sigh which does not go unnoticed by Seifer. _That's not what your memories are telling me._

_I was hoping to tell it to him just as I was going to leave, _I admit, steadily growing ashamed as I realize my train of thinking. _I didn't think he would take it this seriously…_

_You really _are _blind, aren't you? _Flym snaps at last and wraps herself in an unbreakable cocoon in my mind, refusing me entry, leaving me to ponder at her last words.

"In here," I recognize an empty classroom a few seconds later, coming out of my thoughts and swiping my student ID by the doors to gain entry into the room. They slide open and Seifer walks in after me, striding past my form as I stop and lean against a metal desk.

"Well?" He demands, crossing his arms over his chest in impatience. I bite my lip, trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

I find myself unable to meet his eyes as I take in a deep breath of air. "Let's just start with the fact that Martin and Cid are complete and total asses." Humour always eases up a situation, right? Wrong. Seifer's burning eyes remain unchanged.

He knows, I realize with a sinking heart. There's no way of getting out of this.

"I'm sorry," I finally break down at last, slumping against the blackboard behind me and, without realizing it, encircle my waist in a self-comforting hug. I can feel Flym watching, but she offers no reassurance of her own. At last, after a few seconds of tense silence, I look up and meet Seifer's jade eyes with my own.

It takes all of my self-control not to break down in tears at the betrayal, anger and pain swirling in them; idly, I wonder if this is what Flym meant about him and me.

"Were you ever planning on telling me?" His voice is no warmer, but neither is it colder; however, this brings me no reassurance for having known him for so many years now – I can tell that I am not making any progress at all. "Well, were you?"

"Yes," I reply back, chanting to myself that this is the truth.

"When, exactly?"

I shift underneath his gaze. "After the SeeD exam," I say, and immediately know that it was the wrong thing to say.

"What the hell were you thinking!?" Seifer roars and I find myself feeling shocked – never has this much of his anger been directed towards _me_, of all people. Sure, we had the occasional spat against each other from time to time, but never on this level.

Something inside of me breaks.

"I was _thinking _that _you _wouldn't be caring this much!" I yell back, springing up straight from the wall and glaring holes into the blond teenager across of me. "All _you _ever care about is _me _not getting into _SeeD_, it seems!"

In seconds, Seifer has launched himself at me all I can think of is _oh no _because I've _seen _him mad before and I have no chance of fighting him off here. However, just as I brace myself for the punch I know is coming – again, appalled at the thought of him hitting _me _because he's never done so before but somehow knowing that I deserve it – I open the eyes I didn't know I had closed and find him staring down at me, glaring, a mixture of anger and hurt in the depths of his eyes.

"You stupid _moron_," he hisses, leaning in closer, bracing himself with his hands against either side of my head. I can feel myself inching back the last few centimetres between myself and the chalkboard, until I'm flat out pressed against it. My heart sinks lower, but I can't help but notice the butterflies dancing in my stomach for some unbearable reason. Weakly, I try calling out to Flym because I am just _that _used to her help, but she doesn't reply.

Seifer's eyes are stormy with emotions – the same anger and pain and betrayal but then I can see hesitation and wonder and something I don't think I'll ever be able to decide. I can see my reflection in them, and I reprimand myself for looking so frightened before Seifer's forehead is nearly touching mine and it takes my breath away.

"I could never not care about you," he whispers, still angry, his breath fanning out across my lips, just as realization sets in.

And then he kisses me.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **a few typos. Nothing else I could edit in here…


	7. Jack Fell Down and Broke His Crown

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/27/09 – 06/07/10**

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_Chapter VII  
__**Jack Fell Down and Broke His Crown**_

Being kissed by Seifer is a strange feeling.

Not bad, no – actually I'm enjoying it quite enough to start kissing him back – but after him being my best friend-slash-rival, I don't think I should be thinking of him in that way at all.

That is, of course, me lying. Kind of.

I've thought of Seifer in the more than a friend way more than enough times – Karen's and Marlene's and mostly even Flym's nagging gets me curious enough to, when I'm by myself with no one around lest that they _found out_, it just kind of enters my mind and stays there. For a long time.

But then the rational part of my brain that reminds me that _none of this is real _kicks in and I find myself remembering what had happened with Nida – yes, _that _Nida that was my boyfriend for almost an entire year before _Eriol _came – and I'm wrenched back out of my fantasies and into the realistic world.

But, you know, I'm quite sure that this is not a fantasy in the slightest.

I'm quite surprised at how non-Seifer he is being. Knowing his nature, I would have thought him to be the passionate, aggressive kisser. But no – his lips are very soft and warm against mine, and I can't help but kiss him back because something in my mind is telling me to, overpowering the one that is screaming at me to stop, and soon enough my arms wound tight around his neck while his are a warm, comforting pressure around my waist.

However, just as soon as I feel him leaning in again to deepen the kiss, the doors on the other side ping open and a startled squeak is heard from that direction, followed by a few thuds of something heavy hitting the floor.

Both Seifer and I spring apart, myself flushing a brilliant red and him only going a faint pink – lucky him – we snap our heads to stare at the blushing brunette head poking its way in.

"I'm so sorry," the girl mutters in embarrassment, avoiding our eyes. "I heard yelling in here a few moments ago and got worried so I…I…" She lets her dark hair fall over her eyes, further shielding her face from our stares. Something about her makes my mind give a jumpstart, whispering to me that I should know who she is, but I'm not listening to it at the moment but stride forward towards her and kneel to pick up the several textbooks she had dropped.

"It's fine," I say as I hand her a few of the books, my mind giving another painful twinge as her hand touches mine for a second when she takes the texts. "We should be going somewhere, anyway."

The nameless girl nods, her face still red and eyes downcast, before glancing up and making eye contact with me for the fraction of a second. They're brown – the same shade as her chocolate hair, I realize – and Flym is oddly silent now.

"I'm sorry again," she mumbles before giving a hasty bow and sweeping out of the doorway, her white skirt swishing from side to side as I watch her hurry down the hallway.

"Odd," I mutter to myself, following her with my eyes as she turns a corner and disappears, the green shawl floating behind her following soon after. "I've never seen her around here before."

A cough behind me brings me back to attention and I can feel my cheeks heating up again. Seifer looks rather uncomfortable as well, his hands glued into the pockets of his trench coat, his gaze avoiding mine.

"So." I start after a few minutes of nothing but awkward tension in the air.

"So," he repeats and I can't help the small, amused smile that spreads on my face at his wry tone.

"Did you mean what you said?" I finally gather enough courage to ask and he, surprised, glances up fast enough for me to take a glance into his eyes.

_I could never not care about you._

His eyes are still the same as before, although a tad bit less angry. I _have to know_. If there is any chance – any small chance at all – of him not falling that far deep into the Sorceress's clutches, then I, with a pang of my heart at the thought, would do nearly anything to help him achieve that.

Seifer is avoiding my eyes again, his cheeks the same shade of pink as before. "Yeah," he says at last, his voice low in his throat. Flym is cooing deep inside my mind, not wanting to disrupt the moment, but her voice snaps me back to reality nevertheless.

"Huh," I find myself saying, a small half-smile playing on my face. "So Karen _was _right after all."

Seifer's head snaps up at this, but my cell phone chooses this moment to ring and break off the moment yet again.

"Kira!" Bella yells at the other end, and I find my mood uplifting at her jubilant voice. "Come onnn! I _know _that you have nothing to do for another five hours, so get your pretty little butt over here and spend some time with me before you go away to _Galbadia_!" She spits the last word out as if it was acid and I whole-heartedly agree with her.

"Okay, okay," I agree, laughing along with her. "I'll be in our dorm in a few minutes. I just have to do something quickly." Bella gives a loud cheer and hangs up, and I pocket away the small phone in one of the skirt's small pockets.

It takes a few moments of what Bella said to sink in – Galbadia. The next morning, I'll be going away to another _continent _maybe never to see these lovely halls of Garden again. Instead, I would be doing military drills, sitting in a silent cafeteria, going to classes with people stiff as _stone…_

And Seifer and I have still not solved the issue of that. A sick feeling twists in my stomach.

"I…I have to go." I find myself saying, even though all I _want _to do is stay here at Balamb, where it's safe and familiar. "I can't refuse orders from both Balamb and Galbadia – if I do that, that means giving up my life at Garden, and I… I can't do it. You know that, Seifer." I watch for his reaction carefully, watching as he frowns, lifting his eyes to gaze at me head-on.

"I know," he says back quietly, taking a few long strides towards me until he's standing right in front of me. Slowly, he brings one hand up to run his calloused fingers down the side of my cheek. A small smirk appears on his face; "No matter how many times I've heard you deny this, Garden _is _your home. I can't expect you to give that up for me." There's something in his voice that makes me frown.

"It's not like I'll never see you again – there's summer vacation, and I'm sure I'll have missions here around Balamb, and if you become a SeeD…" I trail off, knowing that my argument is futile. He seems to realize this too, and shrugs, letting his hands fall at his sides again.

"As if I'm really ever going to become a SeeD," he scoffs, taking several steps back, beginning to pace the length of the desk beside us. "The Professors here hate me, and the only reason I haven't been kicked out by the faculty yet is because Squall and I are Garden's top best gunbladers. Guess Headmaster's soft-heartedness kicks in for something good sometimes, eh?"

I falter. "Well, there is the SeeD exam today, right? If you pass that—"

"Do you think Garden will really allow me to be a SeeD?" There's a sneer in his voice as he says this. "To give me that freedom? Do the math, Kira. They're scared I'd fuck up too bad as that, and ruin the reputation of their precious school."

I pause, trying to pick my words carefully. _What he's saying is right, _Flym says after a second, flittering around in my mind as she thinks. _If he causes this much trouble at Garden, they don't know what he can do when he has the freedom of a SeeD. They won't have as much control over him as before. _

_And people have to leave Garden once they reach twenty, _I realize. I voice my thoughts – Seifer shrugs in answer.

"I haven't thought that far yet," he admits, stopping his pacing to run one hand through his hair. "It's not something I like to think about. I guess I could always find work in Balamb or Dollet. Lift some heavy weights, you know?" He smirks at me a bit at this. "Or go to the countryside and find my work as a hunter – I've known some kids from Gardens that do that. Drop out, hitch a ride somewhere and find some little village that gets plagued by monsters. I hear it pays well enough to get by, too."

"But what about your dream? Don't you want to be a SeeD?" He shoots me a strange look at this, frowning.

"I have a lot of dreams," he says, refusing to answer my question. "What about your dream? Is becoming a SeeD all that you want to do?"

Suddenly, this all feels a little too surreal; I shrug, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. "I want to become a SeeD… to go home." He raises an eyebrow at this, amused, and I can flush slightly under the stare. "What? Is it so bad of a dream?"

"Do you even know where you're from?" My silence is all Seifer needs, and he continues. "So how do you think being a SeeD will help you with that?"

I narrow my eyes, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up at the words. _You don't know what you're talking about. _"Come on, Seifer, don't be like that. Why are we even talking about this? I – I have to go, Bella's waiting for me…"

The blonde young man sighs, running his hands through his hair in agitation. "Whatever you say, Kira. When are you leaving for Galbadia Garden?"

I shrug, somewhat relieved that I can answer this question truthfully now. "Headmaster Cid hasn't told me yet – sometime after the SeeD exam, that's all I know." Seifer nods slowly after a few moments, moving to stand in front of me again.

"I'll come see you before then." He hesitates, and lowers his head until his eyes are level with my own. "I promise. I'll find you, Kira. SeeD or not."

My cell phone rings, no doubt Bella calling me asking why I'm late, and I ignore it. I have much more important things to take care of.

-~o~-

Hours later and after I've parted with Seifer and had apologized to Bella, I slink back into our classroom and head towards my desk. All the people have left a long time ago, having something better to do than stay in the boring grey room. The overhead lights are off, the only light coming from the thin windows at the sides of the large classroom. Several laptop computers have fallen into sleep motion – never really being turned off during the day for the use of students – and I head over to mine, swiping my fingers over the pad to restore it back.

The familiar Garden screen lights up, blue and white and gold background, and I make haste to log in to my account, glancing at the computer's internal clock to notice that it is ten minutes until time for us to gather at the Main Hall for Cid's speech and, finally, the much awaited field exam. Hurrying, I type in my student ID and password, watching the screen as it loads.

**T A K E G U A R D I A N F O R C E ?**

I make sure that Flym is away in a part of my mind that she reassured me would not come in contact with any other Guardian Forces unless we both wanted them to, and click the large, bolded '**YES**'.

A small compartment in the laptop slides out, a flat panel of stone among with it. Carefully, I pick it up with two fingers and bring it up to my forehead, anticipating the feeling of the spirit entering my mind.

Flym's warning does not go unheeded and I stagger a few steps back as the cold air rips through my mind until I can feel it settling in a separate part of it. I wait for another few seconds as I feel the essence of the Guardian Force settling in before braving it enough to speak.

_Hello, _I greet cautiously, not knowing what it is that I should expect. The cold feeling stops for a moment, hesitating, before a melodic voice fills my head.

_Hello to you, as well, _the voice says, and I'm glad to find that it is female. Female Guardian Forces are always easier to deal with for me.

_I'm Kira Lanning – it's a pleasure to meet you._

The Guardian explores the section of my mind for a second, before answering, the voice becoming a tinge warmer. _It's nice to meet you, Kira. My name is Shiva._

So Squall only has Quezacotl. Interesting. I was wondering whether I would affect anything of that sort here.

_You are needing my help for your SeeD Field Exam, correct? _I send back my 'yes', exiting the swishing doors and beginning my trek down to the elevator. A few stragglers, same as I, walk past me, all chatting in a nervous and tense manner.

_I assume that you know how to fight well enough not to call upon me every battle, _Shiva's voice is now less friendly – a warning that I should heed.

_Yes, _I take careful measures not to sound too arrogant. Flym has explained to me enough times that most Guardian Forces are used to being treated as nothing more than a tool – it seems that Shiva is no exception.

I feel a slight twinge of sympathy for them, but there is nothing much that I can do to change that.

_I assure you, _I continue, leaning against one of the elevator's walls as it begins moving downwards. _I've no need to use you as just a tool. After all, if we always relied on the help of others, how would we grow stronger?_

_You speak pretty words_, Shiva comments before scoffing. _However, many have said that to me in the past centuries. How do I know that you are of any difference?_

I manage to send a wry smile in her direction in my mind. _You don't. You can either trust me outright, or watch me with your own eyes. However, I am still human, and therefore I make no promises._

_You are indeed a strange student, _the Guardian Force smiles, but it is nothing more than a blank uplifting of what I imagine would be her lips. _Very well, then. I will watch you. _

I brighten somewhat at her words, hoping that I am making some progress here. _Thank you_, I say, sincere, before stepping out of the metallic doors and walking down the cement stairs to gather with the rest of the restless students.

The sight of the lobby as I descend makes me pause. There are people _everywhere_. I know there are supposed to be only twelve (thirteen with me) candidates, but it seems that almost every person has some friends coming with them to wish them luck.

_I hope Cid Kramer has not lost his ability to control his students, _Shiva observes through my eyes, watching as two children run around a girl my age, grinning and smiling.

"Squall! Over here!"

Quistis' voice cuts above the rest, and I watch as the brooding cadet makes his way over to her. Quistis exchanges a few pleasantries with him before calling another name – a Zell Dincht – and a blond young man runs towards her, a grin present on his face. A martial artist by the looks of it, I observe, seeing no other weapon on him other than his gloves.

Squall decides to add a few choice words, and I can just imagine his humourless baritone.

Zell scowls at him and replies something, and I am guessing it was something to the other teenager's dissatisfaction, seeing as how he turns his back on the blond with a scowl and crosses his arms over his chest. I continue watching as Quistis gives a small laugh before calling Seifer Almasy's name over the little microphone attached by a wire at her mouth. Seifer saunters over with Raijin and Fujin in tow – the only one out of his uniform, I notice with amusement.

My heart gives a small pang as I begin to wander in which team I will be the odd one out.

"_Kira Lanning, please report to Squad A under Instructor Kator. Repeat, Kira Lanning please report to Squad A under Instructor Kator."_

I frown, slightly disappointed that I won't be joining Squad B with Seifer, tagging along for what would have been a very interesting ride. _Oh well, _I muse as I spot the tall, pale haired man in charge of swordplay classes standing with his back to me on the other side of the plaza. _Can't have everything in this world. _

"Kira Lanning?" The Instructor turns as I approach, giving me the quick once-over. He's clad in his SeeD uniform, looking to be around in his mid-twenties – something nags at me at the back of my mind, and I briefly recall Bella mentioning him.

I salute him briefly. "Yes, sir." I peek around him, surprised to see only one person resting at the marble edge of the fountains there. "The whole team isn't here yet?" The man snaps the small handbook he's carrying together, startling me somewhat, and snorts.

"Thought you were going to be late, Lanning?" I glance down sheepishly and he takes that as his answer. "The last person to be here is known to be late to meetings. You've been assigned Squad Leader for this, so go ahead and chum up with your other teammate. I hear she's just transferred here from Trabia, so show your pride as a Balamb cadet."

I snap another salute before relaxing, taking a few hesitant steps in the direction of my teammate. "Uhm, hello?" The girl doesn't seem to hear me and I walk closer, until I can see my reflection wavering below me in the water. I wait for a few seconds, hoping that she notices me standing beside her – but no, she stays silent and I frown.

"Hello? Anybody in there?" I nudge her with one hand in the shoulder, and that seems to snap her out of it – she whirls around so fast that I have to steady her so she doesn't topple over into the fountain.

"Woah, thanks!" I frown again – something about her feels like it should be familiar – and she offers me a large smile. "I don't think the Instructor would have appreciated me reporting back in all wet for the mission." She giggles slightly, before taking out her hand for me to shake. "I'm Selphie – Selphie Tilmitt. I just transferred from Trabia, so all of this stuff is still new to me."

I grasp her hand in mine, at the same time pulling her up from the fountain edge. "I'm Kira Lanning. I've been assigned as your Squad Leader for this. It's nice to meet you."

Selphie nods. "Same here! So…" She moves away from me, trying to spot anyone heading our way in the crowd. "Is it just the two of us for this? I thought these were usually executed in threes…" I shrug in response, feeling the edges of annoyance beginning to creep in.

"Whoever it is, they're soon going to be very late." I spot Headmaster Cid emerging from the elevator, conversing with a faculty member and sigh. _Geez… _

_Patience_, Shiva murmurs from the corners of my mind, observing quietly. _One must have patience if they want to succeed. _

_I know that, _I reply back, and can feel Shiva smiling at me in amusement as I do so. _It's… _how do you explain something so large as my home to someone like Shiva, while still keeping it a secret?

_Nevermind_, I say instead, and can feel her retreating back into her shell. Several more moments pass as me and Selphie wait in silence, watching Headmaster Cid as he argues – loudly, by the looks of it – with the tense Garden faculty standing beside him.

"I wonder what they're arguing about," I mutter to no one in particular.

"Those damn faculty members must want more money from Cid, that's what." Selphie and I glance up at Instructor Kator at his words, surprised. He sends a small scowl our way once he catches us staring. "Well? What are you two looking at?"

"Sorry, sir," Selphie and I chorus in sync. The man merely waves us off with a careless shake of his head.

"Uh, sir?" I take a peek at Selphie as she steps forward with her question, her fingers fiddling slightly with the hem of her uniform's skirt. "It's about our last teammate. They _are _arriving, aren't they?"

The man merely shrugs in answer, crossing his arms over his chest as we wait. "She better, or she will be failing her first ever SeeD exam." Something akin to a smile tugs at his lips, much to my surprise. "Really, she was so excited for this, too…"

"Who _is _our teammate, sir?" Instructor Kator turns to me at my inquiry, staring for a few seconds before snapping his fingers.

"That's right, I haven't told you yet, have I?" He pauses, and I swear I can see the smile straining to get larger. How weird. "You should be familiar with her, Lanning. She—"

A yell breaks him off and we turn at the sound of the feminine voice (along with the rest of the hall) just in time to see a familiar figure nearly toppling over into the water fountains. Snickers echo along the students as a stray cadet near steadies Bella before she can topple over, and she just sends him a gratified look before rushing over to us.

"I'm late, aren't I!" She cries once in hearing range, her hands on her knees as she attempts to get her winded breath back. She sends a panicked look at Instructor Kator and he just shakes his head, striding over to offer her a hand to help her stand again. I blink. _Definitely not what I would have expected from him._

Shiva, unlike Flym, offers no comment and I have no choice but to keep my thoughts to myself.

Bella's eyes light up once her eyes land on me. "Kira!" She all but squeals, rushing forward to stand beside me and Selphie. "You're here? That's so great!" I can only smile in response and she turns her attention to Selphie. "Hi! You must be new! I'm Bella."

Selphie and Bella remind me so much of each other that I can't help but chuckle. Selphie must obviously see the similarities, because her face wears a matching grin to that of Bella's. "Nice to meet you! I'm Selphie, from Trabia!"

I can just see the sparkles of friendship floating around them. Somewhere in my brain, I can bet Flym is relating well to them. Selphie's smile increases.

"Let's all do our best!" She cheers, clasping hands with Bella.

I give a small hoot of agreement and turn to watch as Headmaster Cid appears at a small podium set up by the fountain. He coughs to get our attention, which works effectively.

"It's been a while, everyone." He greets, looking at us with a happy spark in his eyes that is almost never present in them. "How's everyone doing? This exam will involve 13 members from Squads A through D… You will be proceeding to a real battlefield. Obviously, the battles are for real. Life and death, victory and defeat, honour and disgrace… Each of these go hand in hand. There's only one way or the other. How 'bout it? Are you still up for it? You will be accompanied by 9 SeeD members. Should you fail, these members shall get the job done. They always do. Well, that's one less worry on your mind. The pride of Balamb Garden! The elite mercenary force, SeeD! Learn from then, obey their commands and accomplish the mission. Prove yourselves worthy of becoming a member of SeeD."

He gives an embarrassing cough, realizing he got a bit carried away with his speech. "Best of luck."

His speech evidently being over, the groups begin to disperse for the Parking Lot with more than a few cheers of _Good Luck! _echoing around us. Our Instructor doesn't give us time to linger and sets off just like the others, leaving us no choice but to follow him; neither of us mind, and I take the time to sort out my thoughts while Selphie and Bella chat amiably behind me.

"Hey."

I slow down my pace at the voice and let Seifer fall into place beside me. A few minutes are spent in silence as we walk, and with an impatient sigh, I brush against his arm.

"What's wrong?" I ask, smiling, very well aware of Bella's and Selphie's eyes focused on our backs.

"With the exception of those two watching us like hawks?" He says – loudly – and I get the enjoyment of hearing Bella _boo_ing at us before her and Selphie speed up ahead. She sticks her tongue out at me as she passes, and I spot Karen turning her head at the commotion some few feet away. I duck my gaze from her eyes and smile to the floor.

"No, really, are you okay?" I continue when he doesn't try to make conversation, confusion beginning to churn in the pits of my stomach. _Was kissing me that much of a horrible thing to him…?_

I chase away the thought as soon as it appears in my head, setting my will steel hard against sappiness.

"I mean, you aren't even in your uniform." Seifer sends me an incredulous look.

"Do you _ever _see me wearing my uniform?"

I pause. "No. But this is the SeeD exam…" His eyes shy away from mine, and I frown. "Seifer! I thought you were being serious this time!" When he continues to persist on being silent, I sigh. There's no way I can get anything out of him when he's like this.

"How do you think you'll do?" He changes the topic as we turn the corner to the Parking Lot, and from somewhere in front of us I catch Squall and Zell moving along. Quistis is close with them, her eyes focused on us; she raises an eyebrow when she catches me staring and taps at her wrist.

"Who knows," I answer, watching him. "Maybe I'll pass, maybe I won't. In any way, I think this will be an… educating experience. What about you?"

He raises and lowers one shoulder in answer and goes on ahead, all the while avoiding looking me into the face. "Like you said," he calls back. "Who knows."

Annoyed at his sudden frigid behaviour, I glare at a random cadet staring at me – really, are Seifer and I some animals in the zoo, or something? – before rushing on ahead to find my team. Instructor Kator doesn't seem too happy to see me when I finally spot them at one of Garden's trucks, and he makes his point by stating "Keep your relationships out of business, cadet," as I slide past him into the car. Inside, both of the girls send me amused looks as I try to settle into the lumpy seats.

"There is no relationship," I state before Selphie can ask, and her face colors as she giggles. Bella's grinning in synch beside her, and I lean back against the cold metal in an attempt to cool off.

_That's one thing that never changes about you humans, _Shiva's voice startles me after her being so quiet and I all but jump in surprise. _You and your feelings of attachment._

_Weren't you ever like that? _I wonder back before I can stop myself, too used to Flym's companionship and constant narraration inside my head. A chill settles behind my eyes and I wince.

_Perhaps, _the Ice Queen – as she is often referred to in the textbooks – replies before quieting down again. _I have existed for a very long time._

I can just hear Flym scoffing. _Old hag, _she would tease, and whether she was being serious or not, I'd never know.

The ride to Balamb is spent in near silence, Selphie's and Bella's quiet chatting floating to me once in a while as we drive.

"Are you girls all ready?" Instructor Kator's voice interrupts us from up front as the faint scent of the ocean breeze begins to waft in through some of the opened windows.

"You bet we are!" Bella chirps, snapping a salute even though he can't see us. I stare at her in interest; she catches my eyes once she looks up, and immediately looks back down. My eyebrows rise in surprise.

"Bella…" I start, but she glares before I can get farther. I sigh and shake my head, reaching down to run a finger over one of my pistols. "Nevermind." Poor Selphie looks a bit weirded out by this exchange, but the blond beside her distracts her with a mention of Trabia's ice skating program.

It's another ten minutes before the car stops and we hop out, stretching our muscles in the salty air. Three more Garden trucks are sitting parked at the dock and I glance around for the fourth, before remembering that with Squall, Seifer and Zell being confined to a small space, they would most likely be late.

"Sweet! We get to go on submarines!" I turn in the direction some of the students are pointing at, and sure enough, five Garden submarines are sitting partially submerged in the water.

"I didn't even know we _had _submarines," I comment as our group heads off to one of them, following our Instructor. _I wonder what got stuck up his butt and died, _pseudo-Flym comments and I groan as I realize how much I've gotten used to her presence.

"Right," I mutter. "No more talking to myself."

Selphie sends me an odd look over her shoulder. "Did you say something, Kira?"

I almost trip over thin air. "Nothing, sorry, go on."

Her smile tells me she heard me quite perfectly so I just chose to ignore it as we pile into the submarine-ship, settling onto the seats inside the small quarters. At least these are more comfortable than the ones in the car; there's six seats in total, stairs peeking out at the back leading to what I presume is the deck, and a television-like screen on the wall.

Bella stretches her legs and snuggles back into the seat beside me, leaning her chin on her hand on the arm rest. "What now, Instructor?"

The man sits himself down opposite of us and turns his eyes skywards. "We wait." He says, and that's the end of that.

Some time passes before a man dressed in a SeeD uniform appears at the entrance, looking worse for wear as he passes his eyes over us. "Sorry about that," he announces once he makes sure we are all here. "Some other team was a bit late getting here, and the higher ups don't want us all to leave separately."

I frown. "Wouldn't it be faster that way?'

The SeeD shrugs at me. "Yeah, but we want to present ourselves as a force to the Galbadian army, so…"

Selphie interrupts him before he can go any farther. "We're going up against the Galbadian army!"

Her panicked voice seems to snap the mercenary out of his state and he straightens, snapping a (very late) salute to Kator. "My apologies. My name is Mark, I'll be explaining what your objective for this exam is." He strides over to the TV screen and flicks it on; images begin to play out on it, and we all lean forward in attention (even Bella, who I was convinced was beginning to fall asleep.)

"I'll explain the current situation and the mission," Mark begins, turning back to face us. "Our client for this mission is the Dollet Dukedom Parliament. A request for SeeD was made 18 hours ago. Dollet has been under attack by the G-Army since about 72 hours ago. Forty-nine hours into the battle, Dollet abandoned their position in the inner city. Currently, they have retreated into the nearby mountains and are reorganizing their troops. That's the current status." He lets the words sink in, and I lean back into the seat as Selphie whistles across from me.

"Wow, so this is serious…" She mumbles.

The SeeD nods, and the screen changes again to a detailed map of the Dollet city area. "According to our reports, the G-Army is mopping up the Dollet troops in the mountain region. We're to make a landing at Lapin Beach. We're to eliminate the remaining G-Army within the city and liberate it A.S.A.P. Afterwards, SeeD members will intercept any G-Army forces trying to make their way into the city from the mountain region."

"So what are we to do?" Bella questions, her eyes already memorizing the map on the screen. "Just charge in and wipe out any soldiers we run into?"

She receives an affirmative nod at this. "That's right. However, please remember that any orders to withdraw take priority. Do _not _get carried away and try to play the heroines, ladies."

Selphie's lips stretch into a grin. "We wouldn't think of it," she replies in a cheerful voice. The man examines her for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"We'll be arriving soon. Expect battle as soon as you hit the ground… if you have any questions, feel free to ask Instructor Kator. All of us have been briefed on this mission." He salutes us again before leaving to where I presume the pilot of this thing is.

"So…" I drag the word out in the sudden silence, turning to face our Instructor. "Does Garden already have intel regarding the soldiers' position within the city?"

"Correct," Kator replies, sounding almost bored with all of this. I frown, annoyed at his lack of interest – or care – in this exam. What a conceited person. "You can expect to encounter little resistance from the beach to the Central Plaza of Dollet; Squad B is in charge of surveillance there, so be sure to stay at the Shopping District and keep any reinforcements from coming."

"But where would the reinforcements come from?" Bella asks, sending him a weird look. "We're going to be commandeering the waters and the beach, right?"

Kator's face scrunches up into something unpleasant; I have a strong urge to tell him that in this young age, he'll have wrinkles before he hits thirty. Thankfully, I still retain some common sense. "You never know with these Galbadian soldiers, cadet. They'll crawl out of the ground if they could."

Selphie and Bella both remain silent at his words, doubting, but I find myself agreeing as I recall Galbadia's attempts at taking over the world. "He's right," I reply, and three sets of eyes turn to me in surprise – I ignore them, and settle for taking out my guns out of their holsters. "We're sure to be arriving soon. Please make sure all of you are prepared, both physically and mentally." No use mentioning to them that I have never killed another human being in my life.

The girls start looking a bit queasy as my words sink in. "Right…" Selphie mutters, drawing out her nunchakus behind her back and starting to fiddle with them. Bella does the same with the thin katana at her hip, running her fingers over it before setting it aside.

"Are you scared?" She whispers to me as to not be overheard by the other two. I turn my body in her direction, but keep my eyes averted on my item pouch as I go over the medicine there.

"Of course," I whisper back. "Why wouldn't I be?" Seeing her eyes look at me briefly in panic, I try to backtrack. "It'll be okay, Bella. We'll get through this. We've trained enough."

"But…" I catch her train of thought and bite at my lower lip until it hurts. _I don't want to kill anyone either, _I think away from Shiva, and shake my head at my friend.

"I'll protect you," I send a grin her way from underneath my bangs, winking. "I think I look quite good in shining white armour, don't you?"

I can see her struggling not to laugh, and satisfied at having dispelled at least some of the tension in the cabin, set my stuff aside. The ship rocks as we move through the waters, and I thank the deities that I don't have sea sickness.

"I wonder what Seifer would say to that," Bella teases right back, and I slouch further down into my seat.

"Why does it always come back to him?" I mutter to no one in particular, shutting my eyes tight to keep a headache from setting in. "Bella…"

Smart girl that she is, she senses the warning in my words and drops it. Our group seems to be plagued by silence as even Bella and Selphie take the time to sort out their thoughts, with the Instructor just dozing off in his seat.

Mark's head pops into the cabin ten minutes later, and all attention is focused on him at once. "We're here," he announces, and sure enough, the ship stumbles a bit as it hits the sand.

"You girls ready?" Kator asks as we step off alongside the other cadets scattered around the beach, watching us from inside the ship. We nod, and his eyes focus on me. "Lanning. As the squad leader, don't mess up. You got that?"

I snap a salute. "Yes, sir!"

"Good." He pauses, as if just remembering something, before digging into his pockets. Out come three miniscule headsets and we reach forward to grab them. "You'll be needing these. I assume everyone knows how to use them?" We nod, already attaching them around our heads. "Good. You're dismissed. Perform the mission to the best of your capabilities."

We head off with those parting words, trudging through the sand before hitting the pavement. Two teams are spread out here, keeping watch on the ocean, and I catch Karen and Nida as we pass by – the first sends me an acknowledging nod and a cocky sauté, while the other just smiles with encouragement.

"Good luck," Nida whispers as we pass by, and guilt strikes me.

"Thanks," I mutter back, refusing to be taken in by the feelings. _Stupid Eriol, _I grumble.

_Eriol? _Shiva questions in confusion, and I just sigh.

_Nevermind. I'm sorry._

_It's fine, _she replies back, her voice quiet. _It takes time getting used to the fact that us Guardian Forces are capable of hearing your thoughts._

I bite back my reply on telling her that I'm perfectly used to it and, in fact, rely on it, and instead just stay silent as we head further into the city.

"It's really empty here," Bella notes as we step in front of what seems to be a café sign, and glances around. "At least the city is still intact…"

Selphie frowns beside me, placing her hands on her hips in thought. "Then… what is the Galbadian Army after?"

I raise and lower my shoulders in reply. "Who knows. Probably something stupid like the Communication Tower."

Both of my squad mates look at me in surprise before glancing into the distance, to the far edge of town.

"Why would they want something like that?" Bella questions, confused, and I scratch my head.

"I don't know. Maybe they just got bored and decided to raid a city."

My humour is obviously not helping the situation, so I just shut up as we spread out throughout the shopping district, making sure to stay within close distance of each other. _This is like the perfect horror book setting, _I comment to Shiva as I lean behind an abandoned car. _Three young girls in an abandoned city, just waiting…_

…_Excuse me? _Shiva replies after a long pause, and I can sense her surprise there. Clearly, she and I will not be getting along in the near future.

_Nevermind, _I answer, wondering if Flym can hear our conversations from some other side of my head. Wouldn't that be funny?

The time seems to stretch on forever, with nothing happening whatsoever – even I can sense my guard beginning to falter as the sun moves across the sky. "How long do you think we've been here?" I ask into the mic at my mouth to where Bella is standing at a display window, with Selphie further down the street.

"My watch says about half an hour already," Bella's voice crackles through the radio, and I can see her glancing down at her wrist from where I am standing.

"This isn't turning out to be much of a mission," Selphie's voice says after a few moments, and I sigh in agreement. "This way we'll never be able to show them what we are capable of…"

"Do you really want to kill someone?" Bella bites back, her voice becoming somewhat agitated over the communication link. Selphie stays silent before I hear her sigh.

"No, I guess not."

It seems like an eternity passes before the radio at our ears begins to crackle – _"Squad A?" _Kator's voice breaks up in several places (Garden sure does have sucky communication links) and I straighten my posture, even though the man can't see me.

"Yes, sir," the three of us respond on command, alert at once.

"_All squads have been set to retreat to the shore by 1900 hours." _I can feel myself wilting; so much for doing anything on this mission. Dollet is like a ghost town… _"Lanning, as squad leader, you are to head out to Central Plaza and retrieve Squad B. Their position seems to have gotten lost on our radars."_

I falter; didn't they get coms from Quistis? Bella voices the question, and the Instructor's voice is even grouchier than before.

"_Apparently there were faulty radios within the batch," _he all but seethes, and the three of us freeze.

"All three members of a squad got those ones?" I question into the mic, already trying to remember where Squad B should be at this point in time. Knowing Seifer, he wouldn't have been happy to sit tight at one spot for a long time. I try not to curse him out, but several choice words escape my mouth, much to the amusement of my squad mates.

"_Lanning," _Kator continues on once the giggles quiet down, _"Take Tilmitt with you and scout ahead for the three cadets. There seem to be no soldiers left in the distance from the shore to where you are positioned, but we are worried about further past." _He sighs, his annoyance apparent even to an idiot. _"Honestly, what were they thinking, putting those three on the same squad… Goddamn faculty…"_

"What about Bella?" I panic for a brief moment, glancing in the direction of my blond friend. Even from my position, I can see her tense up at the question.

"_I will personally be setting out to ensure your squad member will not be hurt." _Just like that, her worry seems to have dropped, and I swear she's smiling at something only she can see. Her trust in our Instructor just gets weirder and weirder…

"_Any questions?" _

"No, sir."

"No, Instructor," I echo Selphie, and the link goes quiet. I bite at my lower lip in thought, before diving into the space where Shiva is residing.

_Shiva, I assume you heard the whole conversation just now? _At her affirmation, I continue on - _Do you mind if I ask you to help Bella here? I'm worried about her being on her own…_

_Whatever you wish, _the Guardian Force replies back, sounding a bit amused _Will you be fine on your own?_

_I've got Selphie with me, _I smile back, already bringing up Shiva's container to my temples. _Thank you for being here._

_Of course, _she hums back in reply, and then she's gone. I stare at the stone for a moment as my head seems to get warmer again, before rushing over to where my blond roommate is standing.

"Bella!" She turns at my voice, and I push the stone into her hands before she can understand what's happening. "I don't know if you have your Guardian Force with you or not, but take Shiva, just in case."

Her eyes widen as she registers the object in her palms. "But Kira! What about you?"

I shrug, trying to smile at her in reassurance. "I have Selphie with me – we'll be fine with just the two of us. Besides, we'll be meeting up with Squad B soon, but who knows what can happen to you here?"

Bella looks as if she wants to reply, but I dart away to where Selphie is waiting before she can. "Be careful!" I call back to her, and she waves before resuming position. "Are you ready to go?" I ask Selphie once I'm near her. She nods, and we set off at a jog further down the street.

"I really hope they're still where they're supposed to be," Selphie mumbles from beside me, and I can't help but laugh.

"Knowing them, they won't be." She sends me a confused look. "You're new here, so you'll see."

As expected, we run into no one on the way to the town central (with the exception of some corpses littered on the pavement – their Galbadian uniforms give them away, and even I have to avert my eyes from the scene).

_FINALLY! _I stumble at the sudden voice yelling at my head before righting myself. A sense of relief floods through me as the familiar sensation of Flym settles over my mind, and I can sense her happiness over our link as well. _That took forever! _She complains, but I can tell that she doesn't mean it.

_Sorry, _I reply back anyways, and Flym mutters a few more choice words about Shiva before quietening down.

"There's no one here." I snap out of it when Selphie voices her disappointment beside me, and it takes a few seconds to realize we just reached the Town Square. "Where do you think they went?"

My gaze strays up to the Communication Tower further up the path, and the brunette's eyes follow it – "Do you really think they went there?" She asks, biting her lip as her eyes register more bodies lying that way. The answer is obvious and nothing needs to be said as we set off the path, hurrying our pace.

"1900 hours, right?" Selphie huffs out, glancing at her wrist – dammit, am I the only one who hates wearing watches? "We don't have that much time, then…"

"Better hurry," I comment, pacing myself as we pass over a bridge and up a hill – trails of blood and the scent of it linger in the air and I begin to feel slightly queasy.

_Better get used to it, _Flym advises, although not in a mean way. _You'll have a lot of this coming to you soon, won't you?_

If _I make SeeD_, I reply back, biting down the bile rising in my throat at one particular mangled corpse – several slashes are buried into him, his neck still splattered with fresh blood. _This is why I picked guns…_

"Hey! Look over there!" I follow Selphie's pointing finger and my shoulders drop in relief – just below us, I can spot two members of Squad B arguing over something. However, my attention immediately switches over to Selphie as she backs up beside me, preparing to jump.

"What are you doing!" I cry as she sends me a cheerful look before leaping off the hillside we're standing on.

"There you are!" Her voice comes from below and I can't help but groan before following her example; I stumble upon landing, but manage to remain upright. Two sets of surprised eyes are staring at us – Squall and Zell Dincht. I begin to worry when I don't spot Seifer, but duty comes first.

"We're messengers from Squad A," I begin, doing a half-hearted salute to acknowledge them. "Kira Lanning and Selphie Tilmitt. The leader if this Squad is Seifer Almasy, right?" I bite my lip, looking around for the blond. "Where is he?"

An uncomfortable silence settles over us before Zell clears his throat. "…He ran off."

I swear I can feel my heart stop. "He _what?" _I growl out, focusing my attention on the two guys – Zell has the decency to look guilty, while Squall is just glaring at me. "And you let him?"

"One day—" Our heads turn at the voice coming from below, and I can see Seifer falter as he spots me and Selphie. Good, I hope I look menacing. "I'm going to tell you about my ROMANTIC dream!" Excuse me? _Is he still an idiot! _I cry to Flym, who offers no answer except watching the scene.

"Oh, for God's sake…" I snap out of my rage just as Seifer is about to enter the building, and charge. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, YOU IDIOT!"

He turns back around, looking shocked as I jump down the cliff, falling to my knees at the impact. "Oww…" I mutter, and Seifer offers me an amused look before disappearing through the automatic doors.

_He is so dead, _I growl out to Flym as Selphie lands beside me with a squeal.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!" Zell yells from above, looking very pale indeed.

"What are you waiting for!" Selphie calls back, waving her arms at them for hurry. "Come on! Come on!" The martial artist shakes his head in a blatant _"you're crazy" _motion before setting down the hillside at a quick pace, with Squall at his heels.

"I'm going to kill that bastard," I mutter to no one in particular, but it catches Selphie's attention.

"Are you two together?" She asks, and my eyes zero in on her face.

"_No."_

She doesn't look convinced with that smile and giggle. Thankfully, I'm saved from further interrogation by the appearance of the other two members of Squad B – Zell is still looking at us like we belong in the mental asylum, and I just sigh.

"Let's go," I declare, already heading in the direction of the Communication Tower. It's dark inside and we make our way through to where the elevator is waiting.

"We going up?" Asks Zell but we ignore him and hop on, waiting as it slowly, slowly starts moving to the top floor.

"Wow…!" Exclaims our brunette female friend, peering over the edge. "This is so cool!"

Zell frowns at her and manages to catch her just in time as she almost flies off the platform as it suddenly increases in speed. "Be careful not to fall off!" He orders, to which Selphie just pouts and crosses her arms.

We arrive at the rooftop with no Seifer in sight, but instead we see some Galbadian Soldiers discussing something over some sort of control panel, the one in the red muttering about being stuck doing all the repairs, while the one in blue tries to talk to him.

"Major Biggs!" He cries, saluting. "There've been reports a monster-shaped shadow on top of the tower!" When he is ignored, he tries again. "MAJOR BIGGS!"

'Major Biggs' waves him off. "Be quiet!" He snaps, almost getting electrocuted. "Damn it… this goes here and that goes there… AGH, what's up with these crappy old tools? AHHH!"

Seeing as how his commander is practically PMSing over the control panel, the soldier in blue slowly edges away. "Sir, I'll check around while the repairs are being done!" And then he zooms off towards some other side of the roof, still not noticing our presence.

"Let's see…" Biggs is muttering to himself again like a nutcase. "Put this here, and this here, and this goes here… and there, it's complete!" He cries finally and we watch as a gigantic satellite dish appears out of the rooftop above us with procedures for some sort of bombing weapon, and starts sending a signal to… somewhere.

"What do you think you're doing?" Squall suddenly asks, deciding to make the soldier notice us. The guy does so and almost falls on his ass at the 180-degree turn, but straightens when he notices that he's facing kids.

Huh. Bastard.

"Huhhhh? Likewise, MISTER! What do you think you're doing!" Dude. You're insulting a guy who has a huge-ass gunblade strapped to his back. It's then that Biggs notices that there are no soldiers around him to back him up. …Idiot.

"H-HEY! What happened to all the soldiers down below?" I take a step forward and scowl with all my might at the poor commander.

"What do you think happened, you moron?" Flym coos sympathetically inside my head, trying to level my frustration at my blond friend. Biggs just stares at me before noticing Squall's bloodied gunblade and Zell's fists. His eyes widen in realization.

"WEDGE!" He searches around frantically, probably looking for that other soldier who was with him. "Take care of these twerps! W…Wedge?" Noting that his companion is nowhere near in sight, he starts edging nervously towards the elevator behind us. "I… ah… well, ah, I seem to be done here, so I'll just be on my I-I'm leaving… Move! Move! Move!"

We watch him with something akin to a cross between amusement and sympathy as he is almost near the elevator. His attempt at escape gets foiled by Seifer, who appears with the elevator as it comes up and cockily bats Biggs's gun out of his hand. Where was he all this time, hiding in that dark room or something!

"Sorry to crash the party!" He calls to us, stepping out in front of the spluttering Galbadian man.

"Are you CRAZY!" Yells Biggs before making up his mind and charging at Zell, who is standing closest to him. The blond dodges out of the way and the Galbadian man runs straight into the direction of Selphie's nunchakus.

"That was such a bad idea," I snarl out as I click the safety on my pistols off, beginning to fire at the man's feet – he stumbles back, and I take the chance to Draw several Cure spells out of him before Squall slashes across his torso with his gunblade.

"Major Biggs! Have you finished the repairs, sir?" Wedge, who seems to appear out of nowhere, takes one look at us and his eyes bulge. "What is the enemy doing here!"

Biggs scowls at him, clutching one hand across his stomach as he casts a Cure. "WEDGE! Wedge, where were you! No pay for you this month!" Wedge mumbles something back and starts attacking us with his shortsword, which we manage to evade easily.

_Are you sure they're Professionals? _I bite at Flym as both of them gang up on me all of a sudden, forcing me back to the elevator. _And where did Seifer go!_

"Major!" Cries Wedge again after a few minutes of us kicking their asses. "We're doomed, sir!"

"Stop your whining!" Snaps Biggs back at him, quickly casting a Cure on his comrade. Unfortunately for them (or for us; depends how you look at it) their next wave of attacks is cut short by a strong whirlwind, which sends them spiralling off the roof and towards the ground.

I don't get a chance to question my confusion as abruptly, a hand grabs me out of nowhere and tugs me into the elevator. I last see Selphie's wide-eyed stare before the doors close shut, and the hum of the machine starts up our descend.

"What the hell!" I cry as the arm finally lets me go, whirling around to point my pistols at my attacker – Seifer's smirking face stares back at me, and I lower the guns in favour of glaring at him.

"What the hell, Seifer!" I repeat, enraged, glancing around for the control panel on the elevator. "We don't know what that thing was! They might need our help!"

"They'll be fine," he dismisses my worries with one sentence, seeming all non-too worrying for the state of his comrades. "What were you and that girl doing here, anyway?"

"We've orders to withdraw to the shore by 1900 hours," I bite out after taking a few seconds to try and calm myself. My words, however, seem to set the young man off and his eyes narrow with rage.

"Withdraw!" He roars, reaching forward to grab my shoulders. "Why? There are still enemies around!"

"Yea, like the one up there!" I reply back, frustrated, before wrenching myself out of his grip. "We're both going straight back up there as soon as this elevator stops!"

"Like hell we are!" Seifer snarls, grabbing my wrist with one of his hands, tugging me closer to him; I attempt to struggle out of it, but his grip is stronger.

"Let go of me, Seifer!" I shout, but my words pass straight over his head – he yanks me straight after him as soon as the elevator shudders to a stop, his fingers already forming bruises on my wrist. "Seifer!" I yell again, hoping to get him to listen, but he just continues dragging me through the terrain of Dollet's hillside. We're nearly to the bridge before an idea strikes me, and I curse myself for not getting it sooner.

_Flym, _I begin, but she interrupts almost as soon as I begin.

_No._

I cease my struggles for a moment in shock; _What! Flym! We don't know what could be happening up there!_

_I don't want you getting hurt, _Flym retaliates back, too stubborn for her own good. Outwardly, I begin scowling.

_Just junction enough strength for me to pull out of his grip, Flym! Dammit! _The desperation in my voice seems to do the trick, and after another few seconds, I can feel something in my brain shifting – a cooling and warming that lets me know she had just rearranged the para-magic residing in my body.

_Go, _she commands, and I pull back with one mighty tug. My wrist slips out of Seifer's hand and he whirls, surprised, as I bring it closer to myself to cast a Cure on the red welts there. His eyes widen at the sight, almost as if he didn't realize he was hurting me, but it's gone as soon as it comes.

"Go," I spit out, repeating Flym's words, before setting back up the cliff.

"Kira!" He yells back after me, and for a moment I wonder if he's going to follow me, but then I hear him curse and set back down the path.

"Stubborn moron," I breathe out as I reach the place where Selphie and I had found Squad B – to my surprise, the same three students are rushing in my direction, looking as if Death itself is chasing them.

"Kira!" Selphie squeals as soon as she spots me, grabbing onto my hand – the same one Seifer had grabbed, and I wince in pain – and tugging me after her before I have a chance to say anything. "We have to go!"

"What happened?" I question, confused at their panicked faces, before a strange sound comes from behind us.

"What the…" I trail off as the _clang-clang-clang _increases, and out from the curve of the hillside comes the hugest, shiniest spider I have ever seen.

_OH MY GOD, _I scream at Flym, all at once remembering how much I'm scared of spiders. _FLYM! Do something!_

The Guardian Force seems to be at a complete loss. _Kira, I can't affect machines… _My panic increases, and so does my running pace. _I'm sorry. _Well, at least she sounds guilty enough for the situation.

"What are we going to doooo!" I scream as the spider begins to catch up with us, throwing my pride to the wind as Selphie and I lead the running. "Can't we kill it!"

"We already tried!" Zell answers back, sounding just as panicked and out of breath as we reach the bridge leading back to the city.

_Maybe it's too fat to fit onto that, _I comment to Flym sarcastically as we set foot onto the stone. _No, God, I really hope it's too fat to fit onto this!_

Abruptly, the clacking sound behind us ceases – we falter, surprised at the unexpected sound, before our eyes widen in realization.

"Oh no!" I cry as a humongous shadow flies over us before landing on the other side of where we are. We gape at the mechanical barrier that's sitting between us and the city, appraising us like a fine culinary meal.

Can mechanical spiders even _get _hungry?

"Guys?" Selphie squeaks, backing up further onto the hill again. "What do we do now?"

"Uhmm…" My logic and memory decide to go on strike at this particular moment, and I hear Squall curse behind me as I bump into him in my hurry to get away from the robot advancing on us.

"Do you think it would do the same if we ran back?" Squall mutters to me out of nowhere, and I startle at the fact that he's _talking_, _willingly, _to me, but I guess this is a life-or-death situation.

"I suppose so…" I trail off as his idea suddenly hits me. "And then we bolt out of here?" I can feel him nod from where I am nearly pressed up against him (a fact that I'm sure he'll be holding over me for ages to come) before he raises his voice.

"Turn back!" Zell and Selphie send him incredulous looks, looking at us both as if we were crazy, but I just wave away their concerns.

"Trust us! When we say run across the bridge, run! Got it!" When the both of them still look reluctant to follow orders, I scowl. "As a Squad Leader, these are orders! Understood?" This seems to snap the two out of their funk and they nod, before we all turn our backs on the spider still advancing on us and _run_.

Sure enough, a few seconds later the sound of the spider moving disappears – "Run back!" I scream, thanking Garden faculty for making PE a mandatory school course as we bolt down the cobblestone bridge with all we have.

"We're almost there!" Selphie shouts as we pass by the Central Plaza, and down the Shopping District streets – I really hope everyone else already got out of here. The town is being totalled behind us as the spider uses cars, roofs, and the road to get any leverage it can on us, resulting in a mass destruction of the place. I'm really hoping that Dollet won't be charging all of this on Garden's bill. (Knowing Dollet, it probably will. Dammit.)

Selphie and Zell seem to get an extra burst of speed and rush past us as soon as we spot the shore, where a lone ship is waiting – I can spot Quistis on top of it, fiddling with something there. Squall and I are left to run for our lives as the spider _also _gets a burst of speed – I guess it really _was _hungry – nearing Squall and I with every passing second.

I'm jumping over the cracks in the pavement beside Squall as the CLANG-CLANG-CLANG increases in speed behind us, spotting the nice, nice beach with the nice, nice boat there and we have Zell waving at us and Selphie screaming at us from inside the ship—

I suddenly have an urge to scream 'Honey, I'm hooommeee!' to them.

I gain some extra speed over Squall and grab his wrist to tag him along with me, getting the energy whether from the sight of the ship, the fear of being killed by something with eight sharp legs, or maybe even Flym smarting up giving me extra energy, but we hurl into Zell and drag him along inside with us where we topple over Selphie as the door clicks safely shut behind us.

I quickly get off the girl and apologize, listening to the sounds of Quistis blasting the hell out of our predator with a very cool machine gun located at the top of the ship. Now, why couldn't she have done that earlier?

"Are you all okay!" A brunette SeeD I vaguely recognize as Xu from Garden hovers above us four, worried. "Instructor Kator radioed us earlier and said that he couldn't reach his Squad members over the com link—" I curse at myself for forgetting about the radio, and bring up my hand to where it's supposed to be. To my surprise, it's not there.

I hear Selphie give a cry of realization as she notices the same thing. "Maybe it flew off when we were running…?" She suggests, biting her lip, and I find myself agreeing. Who knew what happened while we were focused on running for our lives?

"I'm sorry," I apologize to Xu, righting myself and saluting. "I think it fell off when we were escaping from that robot…" She sighs, but takes it as a plausible answer.

"It's fine." The ship rocks as it sets off from the beach, and all of us fall into our seats in relief. Xu's attention focuses on Selphie and me again. "It's good that you two are safe. Instructor Kator wanted to stay and wait for you two, but Garden insisted…" I wave off her words.

"It's fine. As long as we made it back safe, nothing really matters."

Zell snickers. "Yeah. You were screaming like a little girl."

Selphie giggles in agreement and I can feel my cheeks flushing. "Well, sor-_ry _I have an irrational fear of spiders." I can spot even Squall snorting in amusement in the memory, and groan. "Fine. I'm going to go outside for some fresh air."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" I turn in surprise at the sound of Quistis' voice, who seems to have just come up from the above deck. I frown.

"What's the matter?"

Her lips turn downwards in worry. "It's just…"

_Seifer is probably there, _Flym pipes up, and my mouth form a small _"oh_".

"It's fine," I reply back before the blond Instructor can say anything else and brush past her. "We're not kids anymore. You won't hear screaming. Much."

The room seems to freeze in awkward silence and I just ignore it as I head up. The sea breeze feels nice on my skin and I breathe in deep, still trying to calm myself, before averting my eyes from the setting sky and to the blond man watching me from the railing.

"What?" I snap, still mad at him when he doesn't say anything. I walk forward until I'm leaning next to him, and he just turns to watch the ocean with me.

_All we need is a few dolphins to make this the perfect scene, _I mutter to Flym, sarcasm laced deep in my words, and she just offers silence in response.

"I can't believe you," I finally say after minutes of quiet between us. The anger begins to simmer inside of me again, but I squash it down in favour of trying to enjoy the peaceful serenity the ocean brings. "Just _what _were you thinking, Seifer?"

I catch him frowning from the edges of my vision. "Well, sorry for trying to protect you," he snarls, glaring down at the water, and I frown.

"I don't _need _you to always protect me!" I reply back, more angry than flattered, and when he still refuses to look at me in the face, reach forward to grab onto his jacket and pull him towards me.

"You really don't remember, do you?" He asks me after a few seconds of nothing, and I falter, not having expected this.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, beginning to withdraw my hands from his shoulders, but he catches them in his own and holds on tight.

"You've needed protection ever since you were a kid," Seifer mutters, his eyes boring into mine, and I stare back in confusion.

"…No, I haven't," I try to say each word slowly to get it through his mind, stepping closer to him to better make my point. "I can take care of myself, Seifer. Always have." I was just fine back home with my mother and father, wasn't I? And even in Garden, it didn't take all that long to get used to living there.

A sigh escapes his lips and much to my astonishment, he closes his eyes and leans his forehead against mine. "Seifer?" I question, surprised, still wary of him letting his guard down around me so often. "What's wrong?"

"You're scared of spiders, aren't you?" He smirks all of a sudden, and I can't do anything but gape.

"Yeah, and you didn't help with that at all," I snarl back, my heart picking up speed for a moment at the memory of the giant spider chasing after us. Seifer's voice sounds just a bit guilty as he speaks.

"Well, how was I supposed to know it was a spider?" He asks, and I scowl, trying to tug myself away from him; his grip just tightens, and I have a sudden sense of déjà vu.

"You shouldn't have run off in the first place," I retaliate, but Seifer merely shrugs his shoulders in reply. "And let go of me."

His eyes open to stare into mine; against my will, my heartbeat begins to quicken just ever so. "Sorry for hurting you," he says out of nowhere and I just ignore it, used to all the times we'd injured each other during training.

"Whatever," I retort back, borrowing Squall's favourite word for the moment, and Flym sighs in my head

_You are _so _unromantic._

I ignore her, and Seifer's lips tug into a lose smirk. "And what if I don't?"

My throat seems to close up on its own and I swear he can hear my heart beating. "I think I might just kiss you, then," escapes my mouth before I can do anything – _Flym! _I scream amidst her laughter – and Seifer's smirk widens.

"Good."

He closes the distance between us and I don't bother pulling away as his lips meet mine, letting his hands fall to my waist as he releases me to pull me closer. Flym is throwing a party in the back of my head but I let all of that fall away as I reach up around his neck, bringing him even closer and tilt my head to return the kiss. It's all sweet and innocent until his tongue brushes against my lips and I let him in, giving a small hum of pleasure as it meets mine. I can still feel him smirking and I smile back, running one hand through his hair as his tongue massages mine.

_That is some sexual tension you guys had going on over there, _Flym comments, and her voice reminds me that I do, in fact, need to breathe. I pull away from him in reluctance and can see him doing the same; his arms refuse to move from my waist so we just stand there, trying to catch our breath.

"That's pretty good for someone who hasn't dated in four years," he remarks out of nowhere, and my eyes widen as my face turns crimson. "I'm just kidding!"

"That was so uncalled for," I mutter, embarrassed, glaring up at him from under my bangs. One hand reaches up to ruffle my hair.

"Sorry, kid."

_He just ruined any romantic moment we were having, _I mumble to Flym. "Stop calling me kid. I have a name."

I can feel his lips brushing against the top of my head as he laughs. "Right, Kira."

"Thank you."

And then his lips meet mine again and all rational sense flies completely out of my head.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **rewrote the entire SeeD exam to better fit the Kira of this story version, added a scene between Kira and Seifer to further try and develop their relationship… :S


	8. And Jill Came Tumbling After

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 09/27/09 – 06/07/10**

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* * *

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_Chapter VIII  
__**And Jill Came Tumbling After**_

We exit out of the partially submerged submarine into the fading sunlight, and I sigh, stretching my arms high above my head. Leaning back and getting the kinks out of my back, I watch out of the corner of my eyes the rest of the team emerge – Seifer gets out first, sending me a smirk and a cocky salute as Raijin and Fujin – mostly Raijin – call out to him from the dock. He pauses to stand beside me when he's close enough, resting one hand lightly on my shoulder, and I allow myself to smile at him.

"You better go," I say, turning around to face him at an angle – those on the dock can't see my face as I look at him, and I can just feel myself lighting up at his eyes as they run over my face, lingering on my lips, before coming up to my own. The pressure on my shoulder increases as he squeezes in reassurance.

"Why? You nervous about the results?" He jokes, and my lips go from smile to pout in seconds.

"Of course I am." Out of the corner of my eyes, I can see a blonde head poking out from the door of the submarine – Zell. The rest of him emerges, yawning as he ruffles at his hair sleepily, before slapping himself awake a few times. I stifle my giggles and turn back to Seifer – he's followed my line of sight, staring at the young cadet with an amused expression.

"I can't believe Chicken-Wuss fell asleep," he comments and I punch him in the arm, causing him to send me a small glare. _At least you have his attention again,_ Flym notes in my head, and I ignore her.

"Don't call him that," I say, matching his glare head-on. "We're all tired after that mission. Rest would be good for all of us."

He shakes his head, chuckling as he runs his hand down my arm before letting go – his touch sends shivers down my spine, even through Garden's thick uniform, and I lean into him somewhat before I can realize that I'm doing it. We stay like this in silence for a few seconds, before I exhale noisily and back away.

"Don't get into any trouble, Seifer," I state, crossing my arms over my chest to try and get some of the warmth back as Balamb's cool evening air breezes by. "We don't have all the time in the world."

He smirks at my words, sticking his hands in his pockets as he does so – _how terribly Seifer_, I think, torn between smiling and frowning. _He's never going to change. _

"What makes you think something bad is going to happen?" He asks, and the frowning part wins.

"Just – do you really expect that the faculty is gonna let what happened back in Dollet slide?" His eyes harden, the smirk becoming a notch harsher. He says nothing, and I roll my eyes at his absurdity. "Just don't go doing anything stupid. There are only so many second chances."

He shrugs off my words, literally. I lose against the urge to scowl, and punch him in the arm again, this time harder, before walking away. "Remember what I said, Seifer!" I call back over my shoulder, already heading in the direction where Instructor Kator and Bella are standing by one of Garden's vehicles, conversing. I hesitate before stepping into their line of notice, not wanting to disrupt the pair, but the need to get back to Garden wins over.

Bella spots me first. She rushes towards me with a cry, enfolding me in a hug. "We were worried about you," she accuses into my hair, and I pat her back in consolation.

"Really? You and Instructor Kator seem to have been enjoying yourselves," I tease, relaxing in the moment as Bella pushes away, her cheeks flushing the color of a tomato.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispers, keeping her eyes focused on mine. I smile reaching forward in pretence of brushing something off her shoulder.

"Not my type, but… I approve," I whisper into her ear, and her eyes widen, her hands coming to clamp onto my shoulders. "Just be careful the faculty doesn't find out. You have a lot to offer to this Garden."

"You're not going to tell anyone?" She asks, her face returning to its normal color, if not a bit paler. I send her a funny look.

"Why would I tell anyone?" I say, gently prying her fingers away from my body. "You're my friend. I want you to be happy. And if that happiness is with him…" I send a covert look in Instructor Kator's direction as he fiddles with a cell phone in his hands, before reverting my eyes back to Bella. "Well, who am I to stop you?"

Something passes in her eyes – gratitude, relief – before her mouth opens slightly in surprise. "Wait," she breathes out, her eyes now searching my face – I run my hands over my hair self-consciously, tucking a few strands here and there away.

"What?" I ask defensive as her eyes travel over my clothes.

"You've been with a guy." Bella grins, all teeth, and I balk at the words. My silence is all the answer she needs, and her grin stretches to speculative. "Let's see… the only guys on there are Zell, Squall and Seifer…" She trails off in realization, her eyes now staring into mine in shock. My face flushes, and I curse my fate.

"I can't believe it's finally happened!" She throws herself at me in another hug, and I slowly hug her back. "You have to tell me everything that happened," she begins to babble into my shoulder, and I wince. "Who knew it would happen like this, in the life or death situation of your first mission…" She sighs, romantically, and I move her away.

"Bella, you can't tell this to _anyone_," I declare, staring down into her eyes. She pouts, crossing her arms.

"Why not? This is _great _gossip – I bet there's this a betting pool going on somewhere at how soon you two would get together." My cheeks darken at the words, but I ignore it, intent on getting my message across.

"_Bella,_" this catches her attention and she exhales, shrugging away from my gaze. "People knowing about my relationship with him is _not _going to be good news – you know how the faculty is here. And with me going away to Galbadia sometime very soon, Seifer doesn't need those kinds of things floating around the school."

Her lips twist downwards, but she nods. "That's true," she admits, taking a quick look at our Instructor – he catches her gaze and taps the watch on his wrist in a quick reminder, not-quite scowling at us, and she glances away, coloring slightly. "Fine, I'll keep quiet about this. But what makes you think _Seifer _is gonna keep quiet about this?"

I pause, thinking this over for a second, before shaking my head. "Believe me, he's going to be very busy soon. He's not gonna have time to gloat over this." My friend peers at me suspiciously at the words, one eyebrow raised, before shaking her head and dropping it.

"Whatever you say, Kira." Abruptly, something that suspiciously looks like a leer stretches over her face, and she edges up closer to me. "But in return, you _have _to tell me everything. How good of a kisser is he? What exactly happened on that boat? You know, pretty much _every _girl on campus has imagined what it would be like with Seifer – they always fall for the 'bad boy' thing." She waits, expectantly, and I attempt to move away from her.

"Shouldn't we be waiting for Selphie?" I attempt at distraction, but the blonde has this handled. She jerks her head over in our very impatient Instructor's direction.

"Selphie called in earlier. She said she'll be travelling back to Garden with Squad B. Now, Kira, there is _no _way you can weasel out of this."

I glance around, hopelessly looking for some sort of escape. "But the Instructor is gonna hear us—"

She cuts me off, looping one arm through mine and begins to drag me towards the car. "We'll sit in the back, then. After five years, Kira, you _owe _me this."

I groan, Flym cackles, and Bella grins. Somewhere, I bet Eriol is laughing at me.

-~o~-

We come up to the gates of Balamb Garden just as I finish retelling the shortened version of the Dollet mission, much to my companion's amusement. The car idles in the parking lot before falling silent, and we gather up our stuff.

"So you ran from a mechanical spider that was going to make you its meal," Bella says, grinning, as we get out of the car. Instructor Kator gets out of the driver's seat and we salute him as he walks past us, pausing to glance at us over his shoulder.

"The results of the exam will be in soon," he says, his eyes lingering on Bella for half a second before moving on to me. "I suggest you two girls wait in your dormitories and don't leave Garden if you want to find those out."

We nod as one. "Sir!"

He waves us off. "Dismissed."

We wait until he's disappeared behind the corner before continuing our conversation.

"That spider was brutal," I try to defend, shrugging back into my Garden uniform jacket. "I know machines aren't meant to be hungry, but just the way that thing sounded – all _clang clang clang _– I swear, it was _eyeing _us, like we were some gourmet dinner."

"And Seifer, of course, was safely on the boat by the time." I nod in answer, dodging out of the way of some kid running through the halls. I frown at his back. "Hey, kid! No running in the hallways!" The cadet turns to me and sticks out his tongue before disappearing into the dorm corridors. I scowl, annoyed.

"I am never having kids," I declare as we begin up the stairs, past the common rooms where several people are hanging out, an undercurrent of tension from the SeeD applicants present in the room floating about. "They're nothing but trouble. And they cry."

"Not even with Seifer?" Bella jokes and I nearly trip over my own two feet.

"W-with Seifer? What makes you think we're going to have kids?" I sputter, regaining my balance with the use of the back of a couch. The young student sitting there sends me an odd look at my words, and I swat him away.

"Well…" Bella's smile is humongous. "Do you _want _to have kids with him?"

I send her a heated glare as we stop in front of our door, Bella reaching into her pocket to swipe her student ID through the door. "I don't know what you're talking about, Bella. We're barely out of school, and you're talking about starting a… a family?" We enter and I throw my guns on the couch, exasperated, before heading for the kitchen.

"We're going to be of age soon," Bella reminds me, persistent, following after me to the fridge to grab the slice of apple pie that I was going for. I scowl at her as she grabs a fork and begins nibbling on it.

"Just drop it," I mutter, leaning my head against the cool surface of the fridge to rid myself of the pink staining my cheeks. "And give me that pie, dammit. I almost got eaten by a robot – I think I _deserve _some reward for that." She dodges away from me as I lunge for her plate, laughing, and dances out into the living room.

"Sorry, Squad Leader!" She mocks, plopping herself down on the ground in front of the TV, setting the plate down to rifle through some tapes lying beside her. I follow after her, setting myself down onto the couch beside my guns as I watch her pick through her favourite movies, one eye still focused hungrily on the pie beside her.

"Don't even think about it," she says, as if reading my thoughts, and I sink lower into the cushions in disappointment.

"What are you going to watch?" I ask after a few moments of stilled conversation, and the blonde glances back at me with a grin. In one hand she holds up a tape – I take one look at the happy couple on it, circled by flying hearts, before springing up from the cushion.

"Gee, why do I even ask?" I mutter sarcastically, ignoring her laughter, heading into the adjoining bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower and then finish packing. The ball's later tonight, too, so I sincerely hope you're ready for that."

"I should be telling _you _that," Bella calls from the room as I shut the bathroom door behind me. I'm left in silence and lean back against the door for a few seconds, closing my eyes.

_You've been awfully quiet,_ I comment to Flym, beginning to tug down my skirt. _You okay?_

_I'm fine, _she answers back her voice warm. _I just figured you needed some time alone to be with your friends. _

I pause, taken aback, before sending her a smile. _Thanks, Flym. _

She stays quiet in answer, just humming, before falling completely silent.

-~o~-

By the time I get out of the shower, it's nearing eight o'clock and I realize I barely have an hour to pack up my stuff. I slump into my room with a groan, poking the half-filled suitcase with one foot before heading over to my closet. I didn't bother getting a dress for the ball, knowing that my SeeD uniform would be arriving soon, and instead change into a pair of sweats and a long sleeved shirt.

"I wish I had magic to do all of this," I mutter to the empty room as I begin going through the rest of my clothes, folding them one by one into the suitcase at the edge of my bed. "I'd swear, I'd just get a wand and it'd all go _poof._"

Flym giggles in my head. _That's Sorceress magic, Kira. You don't have that kind of power. And Sorceresses don't use wands. _

I roll my eyes. _Whatever, Flym. If I was a Sorceress, I would _so _use a wand._

She chuckles but lets me be to my thoughts, for which I am glad. Fifteen minutes are spent in silence as I mull over Galbadia Garden before Bella makes her way in, carrying an apple in her hands.

"Here," she throws the fruit at me, sitting herself down on my bed. "I figured you'd be hungry."

I catch it. "Thanks. You know what they say – an apple a day keeps the doctors away."

She stares at me, smiling funnily. "I don't know where you get that stuff from, Kira."

I falter, surprised they'd never heard that here before. "You've never heard someone say that? Seriously?"

She laughs, shaking her head. "Sorry, I have no clue where that's from."

I sigh, chalking this up as just another difference Earth and Gaia have. "Too bad. With all these apples I eat, I bet I'm pretty healthy."

She laughs again, lying back on the quilts. Minutes of silence pass as I continue my packing, before she rolls over to face me.

"So…tomorrow."

I glance up at her words, offering a tight smile. "That's right."

"What do you think G-Garden is like?" She asks, her lips downturned, her chin resting in her hands. I pause in the midst of folding a shirt, thinking it over.

"Well… it's definitely more military based than Balamb is." I try to remember what else the information pamphlet given to me showed – all that sticks in my mind is Martine's face, and white halls. "It reminds me a bit of a hospital. And the Headmaster looks like a rat."

Bella giggles at this, and we fall quiet again. "I'm going to miss you," she admits, and I smile without any real humour put into it.

"I sure hope so."

Suddenly, there is a chime in the air and we glance up at the speaker sitting at the corner of my room, perched high up on the ceiling.

_"All students who participated in today's SeeD Field Exam, please report to the second floor hallway." _A mechanical voices echoes, over and over again._ "I repeat: all students who participated in today's Field Exam please report to the 2nd floor hallway."_

Bella and I exchange wide-eyed glances, before she springs up from my bed. "Are you ready for this?" She asks, her hands shaking as she scrambles around for her ID card, patting down her outfit until she manages to find it. I rotate my shoulders back, plastering on a grin onto my face.

"Let's go."

The walk down to the corridor is spent in silence, even as we rise up in the elevator. The doors open and even here, I can see the nervous figures of the SeeD candidates milling beyond. Bella and I move together, our anxiety increasing as we step through the doors; I catch a glimpse of Selphie and Zell talking quietly in the corner, and nod in acknowledge to Fujin and Raijin as we pass them. There's no Seifer with them and I stifle a sigh, pretty certain hat I know where he is right now.

"Kira, Bella – over here!" Karen's voice brings me back to reality and Bella and I head over to where she is, passing Squall on the way – his eyes stay firmly focused on the ground, even as Bella bumps past him with a muttered apology. We lean against the wall beside the brunette student, glancing at the clock every few seconds.

"Do you think we made it?" Karen asks after a moment, playing with the cuffs of her sleeves. Bella offers a jerky shrug.

"Who knows," she mumbles in answer, gazing up at the clock. "We'll find out soon enough."

True to the words, a Garden staff member appears around the corner a few minutes later – instantly, silence drops over our crowd like a blanket. Out of the corner of my eyes I can see Bella running her fingers over her lucky ring – inside, I say a silent prayer to Eriol.

"Listen well now," the Garden Faculty snaps, clearly unhappy at having to deal with so many of us all at one time. "If your name is called, you may proceed to the Headmaster's office. Otherwise, better luck next time." He clears his throat, bringing up a loose piece of paper in front of him. "Zell Dincht. Selphie Tilmitt. Please head to the Headmaster's office now." Both have looks of joy on their faces and Selphie lets out a squeal; scattered applause sounds as they rush away. The Garden member clears his throat to silence us, and continues.

"Squall Leonhart. Nida Mackenzie. Karen Monroe. Kira Lanning."

A sort of hush falls as he finishes, jerking his head in the direction of the elevator. "Well now? What are you waiting for?" Applause sounds again and Bella pats our backs in congratulations.

"Well? He's right, what are you waiting for?" She asks, grinning. "Don't, Kira," she interrupts before I can say anything, leaving me to frown. Karen's mouth turns downward in confusion beside me as well when the brunette winks. "I don't think I really mind. No need to leave Garden as much, you know?"

It takes a few moments for me to realize just what she is talking about, but when it hits me I can't help but laugh. Karen bumps me in the shoulder, wanting to know; I shake my head in answer. "Good luck," I say, directed at my roommate, and she merely rolls her eyes. Behind us in the hall, I can just _feel _the faculty member glaring holes into our backs.

"Anytime today, ladies!" He barks, making several of the students still lingering in the hall snicker.

"Hold your horses!" Karen shouts back as she starts heading to where Nida and Squall are waiting in the elevator – neither seems to be very happy.

"Go on," Bella says, seeing my slight hesitation and pushes at me, encouraging. "This is what you dreamed of. Embrace it."

Her words make me grin. "When did you turn so wise?"

Her eyes laugh. "When did you turn so scared?"

Her words hit something in me and I falter. Bella sighs, shaking her head. "Go, Kira. They're waiting for you."

I turn in the direction she's looking at and wince; Squall is glaring something fierce at me, Nida is just smiling pleasantly, and Karen scowls as she catches my eyes.

"Any time today!" She calls, sarcasm edging her words, and I glare back at her.

"I'm coming!" I yell, heading off with one last glance at Bella. The girl just shrugs and offers me a smile; by the time I reach the elevator, my nerves are confused between jumping and screaming.

"What are you, suddenly mentally challenged?" Karen mutters as I step in beside her, pushing the button for the third floor. I punch her in the shoulder as the doors close.

"Better mentally challenged than incapable of positive human interaction," I say, and behind me Squall sighs.

"Ladies first," I quip at him as we stop, stepping away from the exit to make room for him to pass. His glare hits a beyond-freezing point, and Karen laughs; even Nida stifles a chuckle.

"Who'd you learn your manners from? Seifer?" Karen teases, heading out of the elevator. I shrug, and when Squall makes no hint of moving, head after her.

_Stop teasing him, _Flym hums in my head, her presence shimmering just beyond my consciousness, as if having just woken up.

_I made SeeD_, I reply back at her, attempting to divert her attention from the subject.

She laughs. _I know. Look sharp, Miss SeeD._

The entrance to Headmaster Cid's office open and we fall into line beside Selphie and Zell. Beside me, Zell is positively thrumming with energy. I struggle to hold down mine.

Cid clears his throat. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to formally welcome you into the life of SeeD." His gaze slides over us with pride, looking almost like a father. I guess he pretty much is one. "The life of a SeeD is a thrilling, rewarding, dangerous one. What you have experienced in your training barely begins to compare to what life may throw at you in the real world – however, we have done our best to prepare you. There will be long days with no sleep, days of stake-outs and of battles..." He continues talking, but I find myself drifting off, gazing past him and to the scenery beyond his large window.

_SeeD, huh..._ I muse to myself – to Flym – trailing a drifting cloud with my eyes.

_You knew it was coming, _my companion says. I can feel her shifting through my brain – a warming sensation edging on the beginnings of a headache. A cooler pressure settles at the back of my mind as she sighs; outwardly, I blink in surprise.

_What are you doing?_

_Configuring.  
_

_But I thought Shiva already did that. _

Flym's voice titters in annoyance at the other Guardian's name. _It disappeared when she did. I am fitting your body to what is best for both your physical and mental capabilities._

_Oh. _I pause, surprised I had forgotten such a simple textbook explanation. _I see. Thank you._

The dislike in her voice vanishes into something more pleased. _You're welcome, _she coos, more like herself again.

"...many responsibilities, the ability to work as a team..." Cid's voice interrupts my thoughts and I pull myself back awake. Karen is sending me A Look out of the corners of her eyes, having noticed me drift off. To my amusement, Selphie's eyes are glazed over to my far right.

Zell is still bouncing.

I sigh.

"Pay attention," Karen hisses. I take a moment to admire her ability to whisper without being heard over Cid's speaking; if it was me, I'd be caught and on my way to serving detention already.

I catch myself almost saying, "It's not like I need it in Galbadia—" but Flym shuts my mouth. I bristle, swearing I can feel her cold fingers punching my lips shut.

"Is something the matter, Kira?" I stare at Cid, startled, as color begins to rise in my cheeks. All attention seems to be focused on me now and I stand straighter, embarrassed.

"No sir. My apologies." An amused smile is on his face as he examines me and I try not to move too much under his inspection. A silence settles over the room – Flym is causing an uproar of laughter in my head.

"Sir?" I ask.

Cid shakes his head, chuckling. "An old man such as I talks too much," he says, almost to himself. The man behind him echoes me – "Sir?" – as Cid sits down at his desk.

"Anyhow," he begins once more, steeling his fingers under his chin. "You young people have no need to hear me ramble on more than necessary. I feel that you are all ready for this – I am very proud of all of you. Please remember to be ready for the graduation ball tonight. You will have access to your new rooms by tomorrow, at the latest." We salute him, sensing our dismissal. He nods to show that we are dismissed, and we begin to filter out of the spacious room one by one.

"Kira? Could you stay behind for a moment?"

I pause at the door at Headmaster Cid's words, sending Zell a shrug as he glances at me and shuts it behind him. I face the aging man, my hand going up to a formal salute on automatic.

"At ease," he instructs and motions with one hand for me to come closer. I do so, already knowing what it is that he wants to talk about with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Cid smiles with no cheer in it upon reading my face. "You already know what this is about, I presume?"

I manage a nod, clenching my hands together in front of me. Cid sighs and taps his fingers on the table, glancing down and at the silent Garden Faculty member at his side for a moment before his eyes find mine again.

"You are all packed, then?" He asks and I nod again. He offers me a small smile, almost as if he knows something. "Kira...there has been a change of plans. It seems that Galbadia has had a...minor technical problem. Your car will arrive for you at six A.M sharp tomorrow instead of tonight, so you are free to attend the ball, if you wish."

My mouth drops open in surprise as I stare at him, having completely unexpected this turn of events. "But...I have nothing to wear!"

The man laughs, twinkling at me. "I'm sure your SeeD uniform has already arrived in your room," he says, gently. "Go on now, Kira. Please, enjoy the night." He pauses. "I wish you luck in Galbadia."

I grin at him in return, saluting before practically flying out of the door.

I run into Seifer outside without meaning to. He's just lounging around on one of the couches as I pass by, headed for my dorm downstairs.

"Hey."

His voice startles me and I do a turnaround, my eyes widening a fraction of an inch at the sight of him. "Hello," I greet back, taking note of how it is unbelievably empty in Cid's office at this point in time – usually, there is at least Xu hanging around. Inwardly, I begin to smile, learning to enjoy the sparse moments he and I can catch before I leave.

"Congratulations on passing," Seifer offers after a few moments, and I can detect the slight pride in there – it's hidden by nonchalance. I frown.

"Thank you. But I know you don't really mean it."

He raises one blond eyebrow, smirking at me. "Oh? Why wouldn't I?"

I swear he's doing this just to make me seethe. "You don't think I'm strong enough."

To my surprise, he gives a booming laugh and rises up from his position on the bench. "Walk with me," he says, strolling off in the direction I had just been heading to. I roll my eyes but run to catch up to his long strides.

"Now, why would you think that?" He asks.

I can't help the confusion that seeps into my voice at his words, but I replace it with blank determination. "Because you're always telling me so."

We're at the elevator at last and Seifer steps in, still facing me with a wide smirk, holding off the doors and preventing them from shutting together after him. "Are you so sure of that, Kira?"

I stare at him, even all the more confused, but he just leans forward to place one hand at the curve of my neck. I lean into his touch, gazing up in curiosity – he touches his forehead to mine briefly, his lips ghosting over mine before pulling back. _You should pout, _Flym advises, and I ignore her. _It's what all the leading soap actresses do. _The elevator beeps, reminding us of its half open state, and we step in.

"I'm proud of you," Seifer says after a few seconds of quiet, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. I can feel a matching one beginning to grow on mine – he pulls me closer to him, embracing me. I swear I can feel myself thrumming with satisfaction, never having seen this side of Seifer before; only the knowledge that he would never do this in public makes me believe he is still sane.

"Proud that I can kick your butt?" I smirk into his shoulder, and he snorts.

"No," he says. "Proud of having the knowledge that you can kick the ass of anyone who approaches you at that dingy bar you like to visit."

I pull back, trying not to laugh as I gaze incredulously at him. "Seifer, I could have done that before the exam!"

He frowns. "Yea, but now you have the title to do it officially. Those at Balamb know they're not allowed to touch Garden's SeeD anyway..."

Flym snickers. I groan and rest my head against the cool metal wall of the elevator. "Seifer, you are acting like Zell."

This seems to snap him out of it, and he splutters. "I am in no way like Chicken-Wuss!" I send him A Look that I have learned from Karen, and he reaches down to tug at my hair. I shy away from him, dancing to the other side to the number pad. Idly, I press the _DOWN _button and lean against the wall as we begin to descend.

"Are you going to be at the ball?" I ask, feeling his eyes on me, and he shrugs.

"Not if Xu has anything to say about it," he tries to joke, but I can see the way his shoulders tense under his jacket. I frown, not bothering to hide my disappointment.

"Seifer..." I begin, but he waves me off.

"Yea, yea, I know."

I try to crack a smile. "I guess I'll go visit you in the Detention Hall?"

He shakes his head. "No need, kid. Go enjoy yourself."

"Don't call me kid."

Seifer smirks. "What are you going to do about it?"

I entertain the image of Flym flying circles around him for a brief moment before shrugging back in reply. "I'll come up with something. I always do, don't I?"

_And this whole new dimension to your relationship brings a whole load of ideas in! _Flym chirps and I mentally throw a chair at her. She scowls, making my brain freeze for a few seconds. _Guardian abuse. _I chose to be the better person here and ignore her.

There are no more words said until the elevator touches upon the first floor of Garden, the doors opening with a _ping_. We step out and Seifer places a quick kiss on my cheek before striding off. I watch him walk for a few minutes (in the direction of the Training Hall, no less) before sighing and heading off to the dormitories.

_I am so screwed, _I send glumly to Flym, who decides to take her revenge and ignore _me. _

My room is a whirlwind of activity when I step in, shoes littering the floor and clothes strewn about the furniture; I step over a pair of killer five-inch heels and peek into Bella's room. Sure enough, she's flittering about her about with a dress half-done up on her figure. I frown.

"I'm not even gone for 15 minutes, and you've already decided to commandeer the place? Geez," I tease, enjoying her look of shock as she turns to me. Sure enough, I'm nearly bowled over and she springs over to me with a happy grin. I return the hug as she begins to squeeze the death out of me.

"I thought someone was being sent to pick up your stuff?" She asks once I'm free from her clutches.

"Change of plans," I shrug, sweeping a glance around her room. "Apparently there's been some difficulties, so I'll be setting off for Galbadia tomorrow. Has my uniform been delivered by any chance?"

It takes my roommate a few seconds to get the meaning of my words. Her smile looks like it can put a movie star's to shame. "It's in your room," she all but squeals, tugging at my hand to drag me into my room right beside, where my suitcases stand packed. I raise an eyebrow and turn to her in surprise.

"You packed it for me?" I ask, and she shrugs in response.

"You know how those faculty staff are," she defends herself, striding over to my bed to pick up the blue uniform lying there. "Probably would have just grabbed them, closed or not. You'd end up in Galbadia clothe less."

I can't stifle a snicker at that image and join her at looking over my new SeeD attire – the buttons glint in the light and I can't help but feel giddy. "This is so tacky," I say in an attempt to push those thoughts away, but Bella just laughs and pushes the clothes at me.

"Go put them on!" She exclaims, already running out the door. "I have to take some pictures of you in that!" She pauses right outside, as if just remembering something. "Is Seifer coming?"

I falter. "I don't know. Probably not."

Her shoulders fall and I can see her pouting from the corner of my vision. "That's too bad." I wave her away with a smile.

"It's fine." She still looks unconvinced, but leaves anyway. I stand in the silence of the room for a few minutes, just looking at the empty walls, before getting changed. There's a mirror still hanging on the back of my door and I gaze at myself in it, tugging at the skirt to flatten it out. The fabric is a bit stiff and I have a feeling it'll be pretty stifling at the Ball, but I can't help but admire the way it looks.

_So official, _I think, running a finger over the medals attached. Flym is quiet.

_Congratulations, _she says. I grin at my reflection before opening the door and nearly running into the camera's flash. I blink for a few seconds, trying to get the spots to stop flashing.

"Thanks, Bella," I complain, reaching up to rub at my eyes in a vain attempt to see properly again. When I open them again, Bella is standing in front of me, looking striking.

"Wow," I get out, looking over her deep green off-shoulder, floor length gown. She's wearing minimal jewellery and high heels. "I feel underdressed here now, geez."

Bella's face flushes pink and her smile lights up her whole attire. "Don't worry, you guys will be the ones everyone's looking at." I roll my eyes at the reminder and set off for the door.

"Do you have everything?" I call back to the younger girl, who joins me outside after a moment. She shrugs.

"Don't really need anything there. I hear the food's gonna be really good…" As if on cue, or stomachs rumble in hunger, and I am reminded of the fact that I haven't had anything to eat since before the SeeD exam, the apple barely counting.

"Food…" I mumble out, clutching at my stomach as we both pick up our pace. We're nearly there when Karen's voice breaks through the halls.

"Hey! You two!" We turn in her direction as her and Marlene walk up, Karen dressed in a uniform identical to mine, and Marlene wearing a soft pink dress coming up beside her. I blink.

"Your date?" I ask Karen, who just shrugs and smirks.

"Who else would I bring?" She asks, throwing one arm around a flustered Marlene, and I laugh, realizing that she _is _right – Karen might be beautiful, but she's intimidating as hell.

"Well then, shall we?" Bella chirps, and Karen's eyes zero in on her.

"No date, girls?" She teases. I shrug.

"My date's probably locked up somewhere." I allow myself to sulk for a brief moment as Karen and Marlene turn to me with wide eyes. "And Bella is… running single." I stifle a knowing smile at this as she nods beside me.

"You betcha!" Karen doesn't seem to believe her but lets it go after a moment.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?"

The Garden ballroom looks simply amazing – an orchestra is playing in one of the corners under the soft golden glow of the chandeliers, the skylights above lit up with thousands of twinkling stars. Waiters weave amongst the crowd with drinks on their trays, and both students and professors are mingling, enjoying themselves. A few couples are waltzing in the center of the room, looking magical amongst the scenery – someone took the time to decorate the large pillars of the ballroom, and small flowers in colors of blue, gold and white are wound around them.

"Wow," we all breathe out at the sight, and it takes a moment for me to remember how beautiful Balamb Garden can really be.

"I see the buffet table!" Marlene suddenly says, turning to Karen with a smile. "Didn't you say you wanted to get something to eat?"

I swear Bella's and my head swivel at the same time in the direction Marlene is looking at. "Food?" Sure enough, a long table sits against the far wall, plates upon plates of food heaped on it.

_I think we just all started drooling a little, _I murmur to Flym as our party sets out nearly as one in that direction. To my greatest amusement, most of the exam's participants are lingering around the food, chatting with others or stuffing their faces – as in the case of Zell.

I avert my eyes from the sight of him and his hot dogs and pile my plate with some of the more tastier looking culinary.

"I love Garden," Bella mutters from beside me, picking at a piece of chicken contently. I nod in agreement as my eyes sweep over the ballroom – the SeeDs are easy to spot, dressed up in their uniforms; I notice more than a few sets of eyes stopping to linger on me, some with surprise and some with contempt. I shrug it away as I take note of Selphie and Squall in one of the corners, and blink at the unlikely pair.

"Excuse me," I turn away as someone brushes by me, and watch as Quistis Trepe fills her plate with something that looks a lot like sushi rolls.

_You should ask her about Seifer, _Flym suggests, and I find myself feeling ashamed for a moment at having forgotten all about him.

"Uhm, excuse me, Instructor?" The woman glances up at me, something passing over her eyes before she smiles.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering… do you know where Seifer is?" Sure enough, her face darkens at the mention of Garden's most troubling student.

"He should be down at the Detention Hall," she replies, and I feel my hopes sinking. She seems to take note of this and regards me with slight interest. "Is there something going on between the two of you?"

I glance at her, startled; I always knew Quistis was bossy, but I guess something must have happened to make her this blunt. Maybe she had too much to drink…? Does Garden even serve alcohol at these functions? "Er, we've been friends for a long time, Instructor. I was just hoping to see him here."

She eyes me with blatant disbelief. "Of course," she mutters, before nodding at me and walking away. "Have a good night."

_Well… that was odd, _I comment as I watch her back disappear amongst the crowd.

_You want to know what's even weirder? _Flym replies, sounding rather astonished. _Look to your right._

I glance over in that direction and almost choke at my food. Bella, who's been politely ignoring my conversation with Quistis (Karen and Marlene seem to have disappeared somewhere) follows my eyes and gapes.

"Oh my god," she breathes out, voicing my exact thoughts. "Is that Squall… _dancing? _With a girl? And not a gunblade?"

For indeed, the Lone Wolf of Balamb seems to be – well, not enjoying himself, because he seems to be scowling, but whirling around with a girl in a short champagne coloured dress. I wince as they bump into a couple beside them, before making a point to look away.

"Well," I clear my throat and take one more bite of my chicken before setting it down on the table (I don't think food is allowed in the Detention Hall, much to the dismay of my stomach). "It's their matters. I'm going to go find Seifer."

Bella turns to me in surprise, looking stricken at the news. "But you've barely even been here!" She says, pouting.

"Go look for Kator," I wink at her, getting the enjoyment of seeing her face flush. "Really. This is not my thing. Go enjoy your night."

The blond bites her lip in worry, staring out at me with a frown. "You'll return to here and the dorm after, right?"

I almost choke on air. "Are you suggesting something?"

Her face colors even further as she gets my meaning. "No, I mean… before you go to Galbadia. Will you be stopping by?"

I grimace at the reminder. "I think so. I hope so. I mean, my bags are still there, and Cid did say I'm leaving tomorrow…" I sigh when Bella continues to remain worried. "Really. I'm sure I'll see you again. Now go and find your 'date'."

"He's not my date!" Bella snaps, but her smiling face says otherwise. I wave to her as I make my way back to the entrance, almost bumping into the dancing couples – my eyes make contact with Squall's over his partner's head as she twirls beside him, and I boldly blow him a kiss just to watch his glare increase. The hall is much quieter compared to the party inside, and I stay still for a few seconds, just enjoying the peace of the night, before setting down to the Detention Hall.

To my shock, I find Xu sitting at the desk, writing away at a few papers. She looks up once I enter, surprise written all over her features.

"Xu?" I ask, and I can see her taking a few moments to match my face up with a name.

"Kira Lanning, right?" She asks, and I nod. "Congratulations on making SeeD. What are you doing here…?"

I motion towards the hall behind her – it's situated a bit like a prison, with small rooms on each side of it. "I'm here to see Seifer. Instructor Trepe said he was here…?"

The brunette woman frowns. "But why aren't you at the party?"

I can feel myself blushing at her tone of voice. "Well, I'm leaving for Galbadia Garden on Headmaster's Cid orders early tomorrow, and I just wanted to say good-bye."

She watches me for a few seconds before realization hits her. "That's right, you two are friends, aren't you?"

"Does everybody know about that?" I ask, startled, having been sure that everybody mostly saw us as something caught between friendship and rivalry. Xu just smiles at me, amused.

"Well, there was no yelling coming from on top of that ship in Dollet, so I assumed everything went well."

Oh yea, I almost forgot about my comment to them about that. Oops.

The SeeD waves her hand at me to go on. "Feel free. Just don't take too long." I nod at her and pass by the desk, reading over the blank slates where names go on the doors before I spot Seifer's.

I knock, and his voice calls at me from inside to come in. I open the door and shut it behind me, saying, "They should really get you a permanent room here, don't you think?"

He looks only slightly shocked to see me here, propped up on the lumpy bed with his feet a chair beside him. "Why aren't you at the SeeD ball?" He asks, moving his feet to make room for me to sit on the chair. I do so and try to make myself comfortable on the cold steel.

"I got bored," I answer back truthfully. "But you should have seen it. Some girl got the guts to drag Squall Leonhart out on the dance floor."

Seifer's eyebrows nearly disappear into his hairline. "Really," he says, disbelieving, and I crack a smile at his expression. "And he actually danced?"

I scratch my cheek, remembering his fumbling around. "I don't know if you'd call it dancing." Silence falls around us, and I twist my hands in my lap, knowing it's time to bring up the real reason I had come here. "So, about Galbadia…" I hide a wince as his interest visibly peeks up. "Cid says a car will be by tomorrow morning to pick us all up."

His mouth turns into a frown as he looks up at the ceiling. "Is that so," he drawls, and I shrug in answer. Whatever reaction I was expecting, I don't know. A few more moments pass by without either one of us saying anything before he suddenly sighs.

"Come here," he says out of nowhere, patting the space beside him. I grimace at the thought of the rock hard mattress - I mean, even this chair had to be more comfortable – before sliding over there.

"You sleep on this?" I mutter to him, and he just chuckles.

"Haven't you ever been here before?" He asks as I lean against the wall.

"Yeah, but never overnight." He scratches at his hair.

"Huh." He pauses, thinking. "So, about Galbadia… I figure you don't need to worry."

I look up at him, surprised. "What do you mean?"

Seifer glances down, entertained by my reaction. "I figure I'll see you soon, SeeD or not. I mean, how else can I protect you?" He reaches over to mess with my hair to show that he's joking, but I shy away from his touch.

"Seifer…" I try to pick my words carefully, watching him with wariness. "You know you can't skip classes just to come on a vacation to Galbadia. And I'm flattered, but, I don't need protection." When he doesn't say anything, I bite my lip and try to take on a different approach.

"I don't need something like a… Knight." My voice catches on the word, and he sends me a surprised look. "I just need you. Just Seifer."

He frowns, mulling my words over in his head. "Just me, huh?" He chuckles, and the sound sends chills down my spine. "Kira, you always know what to say, huh?" His voice betrays the words and I scowl, shuffling off of the bed to stand in front of him.

"I'm serious, Seifer." He doesn't look up at me, just continues staring at the bedsheets, so I just sigh and lean forward to capture his lips in a quick kiss. "I have to go," I say once I pull away, letting one hand linger on his cheek before turning away. "Hopefully, I'll see you soon. Good-bye, Seifer."

_Well, that didn't go anything like I thought it would, _I say glumly to Flym.

"Oi, Kira?" I turn at the sound of my name, and Seifer smirks at me from the bed.

"You look good in that uniform." I raise my eyebrows at the praise, unwillingly blushing, before turning the doorknob in my hand.

"Thanks."

There's a small pause behind me as I leave. "I'll find you, Kira, Knight or not. I promise. Take care of yourself."

The door clicks shut as the lock turns, and I stare at it only for a few moments before leaving back up to the party. Selphie latches onto me as soon as she sees me, babbling something on about a Garden Committee, but I just smile and run his words over in my head over and over again.

_He said Knight, _I remark to Flym on a cold balcony. And that cinches it all.

~o~

_Bangbangbang-bangbangbang_

I watch the bullets impale the straw dummy held up by a wooden pole at the center of the sound-proofed room, imagining each one of these iron projectiles hitting a different person every time.

_Bangbangbang-bangbangbang_

That was for Cid, who I didn't hold as much contempt for as I had thought in the first place.

_Bangbangbang-BANGBANGBANG_

Martine's face replaces the elderly Headmaster's, and in my mind's eye, his cold sneer is soon marred by red.

_BangBANGBANG-BANGbangBANG_

Eriol's smile, always so serene and blank, blurred until I could no longer see him laughing at me.

_BANGBANGBANGBANG-BANGBANGBANGBANG_

And Seifer's eyes, gazing into mine as I close the door and leave.

"Makes me wonder what that poor dummy did to you in the first place."

It takes all of my self-control not to drop my guns as the voice reaches my ears through the earmuffs, just a few seconds after I stop to catch my breath. I whirl in the direction of it, pointing out the weapons on instinct.

The first thing I notice about the stranger is that he, undoubtedly, looks like a Texas cowboy movie reject.

The student – who else could he be? Looks too young to be a professor – catches me staring at his worn out cowboy hat and grins, tipping it in a form of greeting. A just-as-worn out cream fur coat, brown pants and an unbuttoned purple shirt underneath complete the appearance, and one thought flashes through my angry, sleep-deprived mind.

_He's a pimp._

"Who the hell are you?" I bite out, wary of this odd cowboy-pimp look-alike. Said person raises his hands in self-defence in slight surprise and I ease down my scowl, for once deciding to follow the suspicious little voice in my head that I secretly think is Eriol.

"No need to be so hasty here," my companion tries to amend, his eyes darting towards the guns still pointed at his figure. "Just wondering what someone's doing here so early in the morning."

I lower my weapons and shift my posture, relaxing a bit. _After all_, I think, resisting the urge to yawn quite well if I do say so myself. _I would have done the exact same thing if I were in his position. And besides…_ I look him over once more, noting the slight glimpse of his own firearm hidden beneath the coat. _What's the worst he can do? _

Flym is asleep to comment her own ideas, thank God.

"Say…" the cowboy pimp takes another look at me all of a sudden, peering closer. "You're one of those exchange students, aren't you? From Balamb Garden, right?"

I wince at the reminder and stifle my instinctive tears (which I was hoping had stopped the night before; who knew I was such a crybaby?) and nod instead.

"Kira Lanning," I introduce myself. I need friends here, after all, even for the time being before I meet up with the rest of the group so I can go home.

The brunette young man smiles at me I notice for the first time that he _is _rather handsome for a cowboy pimp. "Irvine Kinneas, master sharpshooter. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He tips his hat again and I feel a smile twitching at my lips. He was an obvious flirt; this was something I could deal with.

"Same to you," I shoot back, turning around again to reload the ammo of one of my guns. When he doesn't leave – not that I expected him to – I raise an eyebrow in his direction.

"Something I can help you with?"

Irvine – oh, yeah, now I remember him. Wonderful. This is actually going along great – shrugs one of his shoulders and leans against the metal doorframe again. "Like I said," he says, using the careless tone of voice that Seifer uses when he's challenging me. "Just wondering why anyone would be up at this early hour." He sends me a heart stopping grin, and I can't help the small butterflies that begin dancing in my stomach at the sight of it.

Hey. Nobody ever said I was immune to pretty boys with plenty of charm.

When I don't reply right away, he takes another look at the dummy across of us, holes where the bullets landed scattered all over its body. "Taking out some anger, huh?"

I scoff and try to ignore him – his comments are doing nothing but stirring up the memories again.

"You're a SeeD, aren't you?"

His words make me stop stiff, arms poised to fire.

"Yeah," I reply back, lowering the firearms a fraction of an inch, and send him a cautious look. SeeDs weren't well appreciated everywhere.

Irvine gazes back at me, watching me with interest, and I can't tell whether it's faked or real. "We don't have SeeDs at Galbadia Garden."

"Yeah. I know. So?" I fix the earmuffs and shoot a few rounds, hitting the inanimate object on the other side of the room close to where a heart would be.

"So?" Irvine says when I finish. "What's it like?"

I shoot him a blank glance again. "What's what like?" He rolls his eyes again and I know that he knows that I'm being stubborn.

"Being a SeeD. Being a murderer for hire."

I force a laugh out of myself. "I wouldn't know. It's still just a title to me." Seeing Irvine's questioning look, I finger the trigger of the gun in my right hand. "Your Headmaster is an ass. So is mine." I let the bitterness creep into my voice without restraint.

The brunette sharpshooter laughs at this. "He's your Headmaster now, too." I send a heated glare his way and he smiles, the motion slowly turning into a smirk. "And may I suggest you accept things as it is? Whining won't help us in the end, and it's most unbefitting of a lady."

His words remind me of Seifer and I grimace before replacing it with a smirk of my own. "We have class in two hours. I will be seeing you around, Irvine Kinneas."

He gives me a small bow. "Same to you as well, Kira Lanning."

He turns and leaves the room. I watch the spot where he was for a moment longer, a hazy image of my blond, arrogant best friend replacing his before I pick up my pace again and shoot the target in the heart.

~o~

Galbadia Garden doesn't allow us to come into contact with any other Gardens, unless we're on missions that require their help. And even then, we are supposed to 'show the pride of our Garden' and 'not mingle more than necessary', since 'attachment to another will distract you from the mission at hand'.

I just bet that Martine is an old hag that every woman rejected when he was younger, and he enjoys taking it out on us.

In short, G-Garden is a military base.

Complete with the drill instructor that you can't help but hate, even if you've only met him once.

And that is how, after I left Balamb Garden to the teary good byes of Bella, Karen and Marlene – alongside Zell and Selphie who came to wish me luck after finding out I was leaving; Fujin and Raijin tagged along too but they didn't look too comfortable there – and boarded the vehicle set out by Galbadia Garden for myself and three other _lucky _students late in the night.

And that is also how I wasn't able to see Seifer at all, until one chaotic day.

~o~

It all began with the tense atmosphere of Garden – everybody knew that something was bound to happen, but no one knew exactly _what _it was. I was out in the courtyard with Charlene – the girl who told me about Martine all the way back in Balamb Garden – and Irvine, who I had struck up a sort of friendship with after meeting him at G-Garden's training room at four o'clock in the morning when he decided that he wanted to train and found me instead.

It was only a few days after us four students moved here, and everything was settling in slowly day by day. This Garden itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be – it was rather magnificent, actually. Whereas Balamb's was a color scheme of white, gold and blue, Galbadia's was of maroon, gold and black. It was more advanced in technology – but nowhere near the mythical Esthar I've heard all my life here about – and therefore, from years back, had a large TV screen situated at one end of the courtyard.

I wasn't looking at the TV itself, but when my gaze landed on it while I scanned the area for something interesting and the faded, blurry letters of 'Bring me back I'm alive' flickered on it for the merest seconds before disappearing, a trembling, horrible feeling settled in my stomach.

_Oh, shit_, Flym echoes my thoughts seconds before the world as I had known it rocked on its hinges and came crashing down in the form of a jubilant, beaming face staring back at me from the giant screen that hasn't worked in seventeen full years.

"Oh my God," Charlene breaths from beside me, her plastic fork falling back onto her full plate as she stares over Irvine's head, her whisper lost amongst the many others.

"Huh?" Irvine turns around at her vacant stare, and I could just imagine his eyes widening as he took in the sight of the Galbadian spokesperson tapping his mic on the wooden platform set up in the center of the room shown to us, a few stray staff workers milling around in the back as they corrected the lighting.

"T-Testing...1...2... Testing... Testing... Ohhhh!" He looks as if Christmas had come early – and who knows, for the people of this world, maybe it had. I couldn't recall the last time I watched a TV show. "P-People of the world! Can you see me! Can you hear me! Oh, this is incredible! Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a recording!" If it was, I think I would have already gone there and burned it.

"This is an actual broadcast over the air! Yes, it's been 17 years since a live broadcast has been possible! Oh, please excuse me... I seem to have lost my composure." He adjusts his tie and presents the most fake smile into the camera that I have ever seen. "We would like to present to you today a message from the lifelong President of Galbadia, Vinzer Deling. Ladies and gentlemen, President Deling."

A man clad in a pressed, seemingly wrinkle free black suit takes the podium as the first guy disappears behind scenes. Whispers break out around us at the sight of him as more and more people arrive to gape open-mouthed at the broadcast.

"Greetings," he starts off formally, sending a proud smile our way. "I am Vinzer Deling, lifelong president of Galbadia. Today, I stand before you to make the following proposition. We the people of this world have the power to end all wars."

"A peace proposal?" Charlene manages out beside me and I shake my head, scowling in the direction of the screen as I clench the napkin I had in my hand tighter.

"Far from it," I bite out, glaring, and both Irvine and Charlene send me surprised looks. "Just watch."

"Unfortunately, there are some trifling problems standing between Galbadia and other nations, and they must be resolved." You mean things stopping you from taking over the rest of the world.

Abruptly, the sound of something breaking backstage reaches our ears, but the President seems not to have heard it.

"I plan to convene with other nations' leaders immediately to resolve these problems. At this time allow me to introduce the ambassador who will be my representative for the conference."

I bite the inside of my cheek, staring holes down at my food. I didn't need to watch what happened next – my memories of this moment flew back to me loud and clear.

"The ambassador is the Sorceress..." Fool. He seems so proud of this all, too.

Gasps echo all around us, followed by worried murmurs, and Irvine and Charlene exchange startled glances. "Heh, it's not over yet…" My grimace brings the attention to me, and I can see them just about ready to question what I am talking about when the camera shakes and falls at an awkward angle, giving us only half the view of the large room where the broadcast is taking place.

I glance up along with everybody else just as the blond figure jumps in front of the camera, a bloody Gunblade I could recognize anywhere held in hand as he parries off the enraged guards' attacks.

Charlene's eyes double in size and she brought a hand up to her mouth to cover the loud gasp escaping her lips. "Isn't that…!" She glances at me, almost guiltily, and I nodded, grimacing.

"Yeah, that's Seifer." The poor girl looks ready to faint at the confirmation, while Irvine watches us with one confused eye, the other still focused on the happenings going on on the TV.

"Who's this Seifer guy?" He asks, losing his attention on us for a moment as Seifer holds up his Gunblade to the President's neck, only to be stopped by another figure jumping in to the line of action.

"For the last time, stay back! You're only going to provoke him."

If I listen hard enough, I could hear his sharp intake of breath as pieces began fitting in.

"Seifer's my most important friend," I reply to his question, smiling down at my plate, before crushing the paper napkin in my fist and standing up to throw it in a nearby garbage can. Several eyes follow me as I walk past, back to the entrance of Garden, Quistis's echoing words behind me being cut off as I breeze through the double doors leading inside.

"Timber Team, are you watching? Get over here right now! You HAVE permission! I need your help!"

I know what will happen already. I could see the introductions in my head right now: _Fate, meet Irvine. Irvine, meet Fate. It's decided that it's your turn to be played with now._

If I was right, then the Timber Team consisting of the four SeeDs plus that Rinoa girl would be arriving here in a few days, and I needed a plan to leave when Irvine did. I continue down the empty, deserted halls towards where my _temporary _dorm is.

There is no way in the seven bowels of Hell that I was going to be staying here.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **new scenes post SeeD exam, Ball, Kira's and Seifer's good-bye added, fixed past tense to present tense, typos.


	9. Don't You Just Adore Her?

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 10/01/09**

_Chapter IX_  
_**Don't You Just Adore Her?**_

"Irvine? Can I come in?"

I stopped my pounding on the door as it opened only seconds after I called the brunette sharpshooter.

"What's up?" He was looking at me in curiosity and I felt a flush settling over my face, even more prominent under the lighting of the room. _Good job, _I scolded myself in my mind. _You just had to decide to come in at ten o'clock in the freaking night._

_Did you have any other choice? _Flym piped up and I stopped my internal rant at her words.

"I realize that it's very late," I began, shifting my eyes away from his in embarrassment – knowing him, as he was any other flirt, the situation might have looked a bit strange. "But I have a favour to ask."

His lips quirked up into a small, teasing smirk and I rolled my eyes, becoming more comfortable when I realized that this was _Irvine_, and even though I hadn't known him for too long, he was able to be serious when the time called for it.

"No, nothing like that, so don't even think about it," I warned, sending him a small glare as he chuckled, opening his door wider for me. "Thanks."

He settled himself down on a chair by his study desk while I plopped myself down on his unmade bed. I wrinkled my nose at the messy state of the room but ignored it for the time being, knowing that I was just as bad at times. So, how was I to approach this?

"Can you keep secrets?" I blurted out and he frowned, leaning his chin on his hands as he draped them over the back of the chair.

"Depends on what kind," he answered, watching me with a new, cautious spark in his eyes.

I shook my head. "No, it's nothing bad. I swear on my honour as a SeeD." He relaxed a bit, so I decided to test my luck a bit more. "If I were to tell you of something that would happen, say, in a few days, and even if it sounded totally unbelievable, would you at least try to believe me?"

He adjusted his cowboy hat – even in the privacy of his own room he still wore it, I noticed – and continued watching me, his lips twitching into an amused smile. "I make no promises, but I can try."

I frowned. Okay, time to try another approach. Taking a deep breath, I looked into his eyes and steeled myself for his reaction. "Do you believe in fate?"

Immediately, his whole body tensed up and he moved to lean against his desk, his arms crossed over his chest.

_That was a low blow, _Flym commented in my mind and I sent her a guilty shrug. _It can't be easy for the boy, seeing the people that were dear to him as a child all of a sudden._

"Why do you ask?" He asked, his voice a bit cooler than it was moments before. I kept my gaze focused on his, determined to get this to go right.

"Those people on the broadcast earlier – I know them." He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. "I had my SeeD field exam with them – Squall Leonhart, Selphie Tilmitt and Zell Dincht – and Quistis Trepe is a well-known Professor who teaches at Balamb Garden." I hesitated for a moment, clenching at his bed sheets with my fingers. "You saw what happened earlier – the whole attempted assassination on President Deiling, and Zell's – that's the blond guy – blurting out that they were from Balamb."

"You weren't there for that part," Irvine commented and I shrugged, evading the question.

"I heard from other students," I answered easily, and I wasn't lying too much – the gossip mill at Galbadia Garden had started as soon as the broadcast had finished. "But that is beside the point. Since it took place in Timber, and knowing Professor Quistis and Squall, they will follow Garden's guidelines and head for the nearest Garden."

"Us," Irvine finished for me and I smiled, nodding, as realization set into him.

"Correct. And soon, Martine will approach you with an order." I watched as Irvine's eyes narrowed in on me.

"And how do you know this?" He asked, wary and suspicious as a true soldier should be, and I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me.

"I know things," I decided to settle on for the time being, grinning widely and winking at him to make sure he knew I was joking. "But you're his 'favourite'—" Irvine grimaced at the word and I laughed again before correcting my choice of words. "Okay, fine, most 'benefiting' student in the field he's looking for and he won't hesitate to order you to go with their group."

The tall sharpshooter stiffened and I could just imagine the thoughts running through his mind at the idea of reuniting with all of his childhood friends, whom he hadn't seen for years and years. "And how does all of this involve you?" he asked after a few minutes, drawing himself out of his musings enough to remember me.

I shrugged, glancing downwards to focus on his floor for a second. "I have my reasons, believe me. Again," I hurried to explain, noticing his once again cautious look. "Nothing that will hurt your or them."

He nodded sharply. "Continue," he drawled out, and I was reminded of Seifer once again.

_They're so different but the same, _Flym laughed, observing, and I agreed with her before resuming my conversation with Irvine.

"I want to go with you and them," I said at last, watching his reactions as they flitted across his handsome face. "And, look, I know you don't like Martine even more so than I do," he smiled humourlessly at this, "So it won't really make any of us guilty about what I want us to do."

"And where do I come in for all of this?"

"I was getting to that part." I paused, crossing one of my legs over the other in my nervousness. "I want you to try and convince Martine to allow me to go with you just in the case you fail to do what he wants. It might be a bit easier than usual, since I _am _a SeeD ranked cadet and not a normal one."

Irvine's brows shot up to his hairline at this. "And if I fail to do that?"

I sent him a rouge grin at this. "Oh, then, believe me, I have someone who can convince him otherwise." Seeing a certain look pass over his face, I burst out into laughter. "And _no,_ it's not a stripper from Deiling City that I am hiring."

_Hey! _Flym bit out as she realized his idea of her being a stripper. _Really. I agree with you to go and help by confounding his mind and this is the thanks I get from you people. Great._

Irvine laughed with me, and the tense atmosphere around us went down a notch. "So that's all you want me to do?" I nodded and he considered it for another moment before shrugging. "Sure, I guess. Wouldn't hurt to try." I beamed at him and sprung up from his bed.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed and he looked startled for a second at my personality change before sending me an endearing grin.

"No problem, love," he answered with a tip of his cowboy hat before his eyes met mine and I paused in my internal celebrating. "But I expect you to tell me how you know all of this someday soon."

I smiled at him, already on my way to the door. "In due time, I will. But for now," I smirked, my hand pausing on the wooden doorknob. "I'll keep my secrets, and you'll keep yours."

I shut the door behind me.

-~o~-

"You were right," is all Irvine says to me the next afternoon as we wait in line for lunch.

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face.

-~o~-

_"Kira Lanning, report to Headmaster Martine's office immediately."_

Nearly skipping down the hallway and attracting many odd stares at my happiness to go while doing so, I debate inside myself as to what was going to happen next.

_Everything's going according to plan so far, _I hum, resisting the urge to slide down the thin banisters by the stairs I am descending on my way to the Garden's elevator – the only way to get to, and fro, from the Headmaster's office, much like Balamb's. Which was very inconvenient, now that I think about it, since how would the Headmaster get up or down when the elevator was out of order? Would he have to get some technological thing to make him float out the window (did Martine's office have any windows?) and onto the courtyard beneath to the amusement of students, or does he have some magical thing like _Float_ that will get him out? Maybe he can kill himself, turn himself into a ghost, and go through the floor; heh.

I like that last one the best.

_Focus on our plan, _Flym interrupts my daydreaming of Martine's dead body lying on the ground (I can throw him out the window!) and brings the subject back to the matter of hand.

Which is, in basic wording, breaking out of Garden.

I know, I know; technically, Martine will be allowing me to leave with Irvine but unlike our favourite flirty sharpshooter, I have a strong gut feeling that he'll send someone to take me back after the plan (fails), since power hungry headmasters like him like to keep moneymaking subjects (SeeDs such as I) close to their hearts (purses).

Therefore, that will lead me to not wanting to go back – hell, who would want to go back to _Martine_, of all people, especially since Galbadia Garden will be overtaken by the Sorceress and _oh my god _maybe even _Seifer _(not that anyone knows that) – and that will take some work, because a cadet just doesn't refuse the orders of their higher official.

But, y'know, I will be eighteen soon enough and that is the legal age back on Earth. Is it the legal age here? I sure hope so. I mean, if I'm eighteen and officially considered an adult, then I can quit Garden and go out into the world since I'm not staying at this Garden until I'm twenty and lose what is maybe my only chance to get back home.

Which makes me think: am I really going to get home?

I mean, sure, we kick the hell out of Ultimecia and her doggy lion Griever, get hailed as heroes, blah blah all that drama. But where does that leave me? Am I just gonna do a _pop _and disappear in Time Compression while Rinoa and Squall find each other and everybody gets a happy ending with the exception of me? If Eriol's as 'broken' as he says right now he is, then how is going to get fixed fast enough to send me back home?

And what am I doing back home right now? Is my body still there, only in a coma, still growing and maturing while I lie on some probable death bed causing my family to angst over my state of health, or have they already forgotten me? Shit, maybe they have even cut off my life line and I'm buried six feet under in some dingy graveyard with wilting lilies lying above me!

No, my parents wouldn't do that. They loved me too much the last time I checked.

Okay, Kira, move your mind away from that topic. Far away.

Good. Moving on to Seifer. What will I be doing with him anyways? My heart – and my head; is that a normal side effect? - start hurting at the mere mention of him still, so how will I be able to put up fighting with him? Seeing his face there, on the enemy lines, his gunblade poised at me and the cold eyes staring into mine, no feelings for me left…

No. Maybe he's actually still in Garden, slashing some T-Rexaurs left and right at the Training Center, taking out his rage on the monsters as per usual. Raijin and Fujin would be with him, killing off the center's population all on their own – the trio of them, always.

I was just the extra person, wasn't I? I mean, it's not like I was ever a part of them in the first place. The only person out of them that I ever hung out was Seifer when he was away from his two other friends, and Raijin and Fujin were only present a few times with us, so I never got enough time to actually get to know them. I was always with Karen and Marlene and Bella and Nida (when we were still going out; then I started avoiding him like the plague, much to my guilty conscience and his hurt confusion) and that was it. People liked to avoid me, as I mentioned earlier, because of my 'close' association with Seifer the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, aka resident school bully.

Wow. Seifer really didn't have too good of a reputation, did he?

_You just realized that? _I jumped at Flym's voice, having forgotten that she was listening in to my internal ranting.

_Of course I knew that! _I shoot back, noting for the first time that I somehow managed to get myself to the elevator without paying any attention. Huh. Good feet; you're doing your job well. _I just…forgot. _I say as I press the elevator calling button and wait as it descends down towards me.

I can feel Flym regarding me with a scrutinizing look. _Right, _she says, sarcastic, and I send her a glare. She brushes it off and waits until I'm safely in the elevator – _Lest we repeat that accident again_, she explains wryly once, of course, mentioning the time I was too busy talking with her and stepped into the glass wall by accident, breaking my nose and spending the rest of the day in the Infirmary – to start talking again.

_What do you think he's going to say? _She says as the electric hum starts up and I feel my stomach tug lower before gravity catches back up. _It can be for an entirely different reason altogether that he wants to speak to you with._

I scoff at her words. _As if. You and I both know Eriol – he won't let that happen, if he has anything to say about it. And if he doesn't, well, that's where you come in, right?_

Flym is quiet, and I begin to worry. _Flym?_

_Eriol isn't a god, you know, _she says all of a sudden, any trace of playfulness gone from her childish voice. _He can't do all the things you expect him too. In the end, he's still human._

_Mechanical, _I correct her, remembering his explanation of being a Playstation 2 that belonged to me. _Spiritual. Something like that._

_Of course, _Flym laughs with me, and she's back to her normal self. _I do hope that you'll need me against Martine though._

The elevator doors ping open and the secretary glances up, bored, before waving me in with one hand. I pass by her desk and catch the item that has all of her attention focused on it – a smut novel. Nice. I stifle a laugh.

_I wonder what goes in inside that man's mind, _Flym continues, her voice taking in a faraway tone. _Oh, can you imagine all the blackmail you can get? So wonderful…_

I'm cackling on the inside when I salute Martine on the outside while managing to keep a straight face, thank god. He nods at me to relax and I do so, though my posture all but screams that I'm ready for calling in Flym and dodging away as she flies on her banana-moon and starts confusing the hell out of him – I'm surprised that he doesn't notice this. Who knows, maybe he does, but decides that it doesn't matter because to his knowledge, I'm rather weak and have no Guardian Force to help me boost my strength.

I harrumph inside my head like my grandmother likes to do. Idiotic man. Has he forgotten already that I am a SeeD?

"You've seen the broadcast that happened earlier, I'm sure," Martine the rat-face says without any pleasantries, getting straight to the point. That's pretty much the only thing that I like about him – no beating around the bushes on important topics.

"Yes, sir."

He nods in satisfaction, but really, even those who hadn't seen the media miracle had heard about it the second they stepped outside their rooms. "The SeeD Balamb Team will most likely be coming here as soon as tomorrow, and Headmaster Cid has already contacted me with orders on what they are to do when they arrive here."

I resist the urge to tap my foot. Forget what I just said – I don't need to know all of this; just tell me that I'm to accompany them and get it over with, for the love of God.

"Yes, sir." He's one of those people that need prompting to continue, to make him feel like he has all the attention. Arrogant ass.

"You and Irvine Kinneas will accompany them for the time being, as the mission calls for your skills." His lips curl into a sneer and once again I'm reminded of his prejudice against female cadets. The only reason he probably even agreed to Irvine's persuading is because I'm a female _SeeD_, and therefore, to him, my skills are above most of the other cadets of the same gender.

Which, you know, they might be, but I'm not saying anything. The people here don't have a SeeD field exam, so who knows how they would have done in them.

"Irvine Kinneas will be the sharpshooter for this mission, while you will be the backup in the case that he," he pauses, obviously not believing in what he is saying next. "In the case that he fails."

FINALLY he gets to the point. Good job, rat-man. Have a doggy treat. Try to make it faster next time, okay?

"Yes, sir."

"A faculty member will be sent to pick you and Kinneas up once the mission results are sent back, in the case that you can't make it back to Garden." Information stored for later use? Check. Plan in the making on how to avoid annoying school staff? Check. "If the mission fails, however…" It goes unsaid between us, but he knows that the most likely result will be us dead because, _hello, _we tried to assassinate the Sorceresses. He, however, doesn't know that I know so he just says for my benefit, "We will look into the when the time comes. A faculty member will be sent at the next possible time."

Nod at him and salute on automatic while making plans of break-out with Flym. Would anyone miss one staff member if I, say, threw them into some trench and put several Sleep spells on them? A desert prison would be a nice place to take a nap, I bet.

"You will be called over the PA when they arrive, so be sure to finish packing by tonight. Dismissed." Nod again and salute, followed by heading to the door. Almost out to freedom! Martine's room doesn't have any windows, by the way. It's large, with fancy carpeting and dark wooden panels for walls. Lamps here and there, but that's it. Rather dreary and boring. I prefer Cid's office.

Not that I'd like to be in his office either. It usually means bad news for me.

"Oh, and Lanning."

I turn. "Yes, sir?" That's all I've said to him in the entire meeting. I'd prefer to keep it that way, thanks. Don't need it to get any more personal.

Martine's hawk-like eyes narrow – which looks rather funny on his rat face – and he sneers at me again. Way to be a good role model for our students, Headmaster. "Do not fail me."

My fingers twitch and I swear my guns are burning against my thighs. "Yes, sir."

He nods and waves his hand at me. "Good."

Thank you for the good luck, sir. Yes, I'll be careful, sir. Of course I'll try not to die, sir.

Thanks for your concern, _sir. _

_I wanted to rape his mind, _Flym pouts once we're out of the man's office and into the shiny, sterile clean halls of G-Garden. _Not fair. _

I make a disgusted face at her. _God, Flym, don't put it like that. Way to go, giving me these images._

Flym sends me an image of a red toy hammer hitting empty air that is supposed to be my head, complete with yellow sparks going off when it comes in contact. _Get your mind out of the gutter, Kira. _

I smirk at her while making my way to my dorm, the hallways all but empty, it being nearly ten o'clock at night. _Why? I hear it's rather nice down there. _

Flym catches on right away and rebukes back with a large smirk of her own. _Why, yes, especially with a certain blond haired man being down there with you. Not mentioning any names, but…_

My whole face flushes and suddenly the whole gutter joke isn't as funny anymore. _Shut up, Flym._

Flym cackles but leaves me well enough to my thoughts, much to my pleasure. I finish the long trek to my room – the elevator being all the way on the _other _side of Garden – and swipe my student ID through the door. The locks clicks open with a buzz and I kick off my shoes once inside, slam the door behind me, and collapse on the bed.

The room is smaller than my Balamb one, the main reason being that you don't room with another person here. I would think that it gets lonely at times, but I haven't been here long enough – and I don't plan to – to figure it out. In the meantime, the alone time I get for myself after classes and training felt good on my mind.

Several sharp knocks on my door bring me out of my hazy daydreaming and curious, I spring up from the plain blue bed sheets and towards the door.

I smile in amusement upon opening it. "Well, it looks like our roles have been reversed."

Irvine gives a laugh as I open the door wider and plop myself down on my bed again, watching as he closes the door behind him and sits himself down on one of the chairs scattered around the room.

"Well, what's up?"

"Martine's already talked to you?" He asks, his demeanour serious, and I nod. "Did he actually tell you what it is that we have to do?" When I shake my head in answer, he sighs and takes off his cowboy hat, running a hand through his hair in agitation. Looking me straight in the eyes – which I notice he forced to be as emotionless and cold as possible for him, he says:

"We're to assassinate the Sorceress."

Even with the knowledge of this coming, I can't help the chill that passes through my body at his words. After years of living here and hearing about the current sorceress and her limitless abilities… it was downright frightening, what she could do if she wanted.

"…You're frikkin' kidding me," I gape for extra effect, which isn't that hard, seeing as how the part of my brain that grew used to living here is currently shouting _DangerDangerDanger! _

Irvine grimaces. "I wish I was. But that fool Martine actually wants us to go and _try_, for the love of God." He gives a cold laugh and shakes his head at the absurdity of it all.

"As if the Sorceresses would fall for something like that," he continues after a moment, his eyes taking on a faraway gleam.

I wonder, briefly, whether he already knows that the Sorceress was actually Edea.

"Martine only thinks so because she's a _woman_," I put in, trying to ease our situation. "To him, females are the weaker race. He's _that _much of an ignorant, pompous ass."

My friend stares at me for a few seconds before bursting out in laughter. "Do you ever take anything seriously?" He finally asks after he has calmed down, grinning. I open my mouth to answer, but he shakes his head before I could. "Nevermind that question."

I frown at him, hoping that he did know that I was serious most of the time – take the first time I met him, for example. Course, I was being more stubborn than serious there…

"So," Irvine is talking again and I bring my attention back to him again. "I'll be the one assigned to assassinate her, while you're my 'back-up' in the case that I fail." He gives a small smirk here. "Which I won't, by the way."

"'I never miss my target,'" I finish for him, hearing him repeat it at nearly every training session we had together. Which wasn't much, but enough for me to remember it alongside his lines from the game.

"I don't think I'll be much help as back-up, though," I continue, rolling over my back to gaze up into the white ceiling. "We'll probably just charge in and fight here, since she'll notice us by then."

My companion shrugs and rises up, ready to leave the room. "Probably. Well," he glances at my clock and tips his hat at me in his usual Irvine-cowboy-pimp manner once I turn my head upside down to glance over in his direction. "I'll be going, then. Be sure to catch some sleep for the big day tomorrow."

I smirk at him and wave him away. "Stop being such a mother-hen, Irvine. You're the one that needs to take your own advice." He grimaces but chuckled nevertheless, leaving. I can hear his boots echoing down the hallway outside for a few seconds, due to it being unnaturally quiet and the walls quite thin, before rolling myself over on my side and, unclipping my pistols to lay them beside me, and dozing off, uniform and all, with a happy sigh at the idea that everything was going along great.

And then the dreams start.

I find myself in the glass room again, and thinking Eriol and Flym wanted to talk again about tomorrow, I let myself float in the air as usual until they called me.

A stranger's voice shoots through the silence.

"My, isn't this an interesting room."

I am on my feet on the wooden floor faster than you could say 'what the hell?', my hands reaching for my pistols on instinct, but I curse when I realize that they weren't brought over with me into the dream world. Instead, cautious – and a bit curious too – I inch myself forward to where the voice is coming from.

"You don't have to be afraid," the voice giggles and then I am facing the girl face-to-face, her wide eyes staring happily into mine as I take in her appearance with a gaping mouth.

"If you don't close that mouth of yours, a fly will fly in!" My reflection-girl chides, a frown forming over her pouty lips. With a jolt, I realize that she isn't quite me – but she looks an awful lot alike.

"Who are you?" I croak out, at a sudden loss of words, taking in the familiar, vibrant red hair and amused grey eyes. Her bangs are covering her right eye almost completely – unlike mine, which are almost long enough to cover both – and she is wearing dark jeans with a silver tunic. There is a thin belt slung around her hips at an angle, and an empty scabbard is where a sword would go – I am glad to see that it is empty, but don't leave down my defences, lest she could use magic.

She raises one arm, the many golden and silver bangles dangling there clinking against each other, and puts it at her chin in thought. "Well," she pretends to think it over, cocking her head to the side in a manner that I recognized as mine, "Edea calls me Anna, when I'm really Anna_bell_, but I don't really mind so you can call me that too." Her smile widens to unnatural length – one of those close lipped smiles where you could catch a glimpse of the person's teeth – at my face when she mentions Edea, and she brings her hands up to lay them on my shoulders. In my shock, I let her, my mind still reeling.

"But, you know," she continues, looking happily into my eyes all the while she did so. "There's a really long story behind that, so for now, you can just think of me as what I really am." She pauses for effect, her matching eyes searching my face.

"You can think of me as the girl whose life you stole so long ago."

Her laughter, high-pitched – bordering on shrill and hysterical – echoes in my ears as I fall to the accompanying sounds of one of the many mirrors in my mind-room shattering.

"There is someone I want you to meet, my Knight," her voice sounds silkily in his ear as she leads him towards one of the many rooms of Deiling Mansion. Seifer lets her do so, his mind still going over what had transpired earlier.

He was a Knight. A Sorceress's Knight.

The Sorceress pushes open the door in front of them with one light hand, and it barely makes a creak as it swings inward, bestowing the lamp light from the hallway into the room inside.

"Hm?"

There is a figure sitting on the large bed in the center, an unopened book held loosely in their hands. Their head snaps up at the sound of the two entering and Seifer realizes after a moment of staring that he was alone now, the Sorceress having left quietly seconds before.

He takes a step forward, the person's face falling into the light as they also lean forward in curiosity, and his eyes widen in shock.

"Kira?"

The red-haired girl laughs in a gentle way that, in the back of his mind, Seifer knew his friend never would, and sits up.

"Not quite," she says, smiling at him as he takes another step forward, and her eyes gleam with something unreadable. "But close enough."

"Who are you, then?" Seifer asks, his voice breaking at the sight of the girl that looked exactly like the one he had been chasing after for years now. She leans her head to the side, watching him, before answering in a tilting voice that hid something cruel beneath it.

"I'm what's left. Or maybe, I'm all that ever was." She laughs again, before smirking wide at him, her eyes suddenly narrower and sharper.

"In the end, I'm something that could have been what that girl is, once upon a _very _long time ago."

-~o~-

**Things edited: **a couple of typos, fixed the present-past style to present time.


	10. I'll Always Be Here

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 10/01/09**

_Chapter X  
__**I'll Always Be Here**_

"I'm going crazy."

I inspect my face in the mirror of the small bathroom attached to my room, bringing one of my hands to run it over my face, just to make sure that the reflection staring back at me with empty grey eyes is mine and not someone else's.

The mirror reacts, and the girl in there is cupping her cheek just as I am, her gaze piercing mine as she moves her fingers over her nose and forehead, to the messy red hair that hasn't been brushed yet, curling a stray lock around her pointer finger. She brushes her bangs back, ruffling them up to even more of a mess, but she doesn't seem to care because her face is relaxing and her eyes are now sparkling a bit, looking more and more alive by the minute.

_Everything's fine, you see? _Flym interrupts in my mind, steering my thoughts away from the frightened direction they are currently going in and to lighter topics. _It was all just a crazy dream. _

I keep on watching the reflection still, observing as I make my face go through several expressions, one after the other. _No, it wasn't, _I reply back, sticking my tongue out at myself and then smiling, feeling as if a weight has been taken off my shoulders. _I felt her there, Flym. I felt her presence in my mind, before I blacked out. She had her hands on my shoulders – and, dammit, Flym – I could _feel _them perfectly fine and when she laughed, it sent shivers up my spine…_

Flym falls silent, and I say, quietly, _Now, Flym, tell me that it was still just a dream. _

_You just have a very overly active imagination! _She begins to protest again, and I notice a sense of desperation creeping in to her voice. Feeling reassured that the crazy look-alike of me hadn't followed me out of my sleep and into the real world, I leave the small cubical room and let myself fall onto my bed, fingering the quilt beneath my fingers.

_You're hiding something, aren't you? _I accuse her, and when she stays quiet, not bothering to deny it or agree to it, I sigh and know that I've struck the truth. _What is it?_

_Nothing! _Flym's voice is turning sterner, and I clutch at the bed tighter.

_Flym. _

She doesn't answer for a few moments, and just as I am about to give up, she sends a sigh through our connection. _I can't tell you yet… _She notices that I am about to say something against her, and quickly continues. _But that's only because I don't know much of it myself and Eriol said he'll explain to you when the time is right so—_

_Eriol told you not to say anything, _I translate, feeling the hatred for the boy that welled up in me all those years back when I first found out what he'd done, stirring a bit from where I've locked it away. I squash those emotions – I didn't need to hate the only one who could help me get home, even if he was the reason I ended up here in the first place. Flym says nothing again, and I groan.

_That…that annoying bastard! _I growl out, punching the soft material with a fist, sending the various medical bottles I had gathered at the other end of the bed tinkling a bit as they bounced against each other from the movement. _He's always hiding something from me!_

_It's for your own good, _Flym defends, suddenly wise and unlike how she usually is. I stop the rant forming in my mind at her change, startled, and she continues, gentler this time. _There are some things that you can't know yet, because they'll hurt you more than you know. _

My mouth falls open in shock as her words register in my mind, and I clench my fists in anger. _There are more things that you are keeping from me!_

_Kira— _Flym attempts to interrupt but I cut her off.

_No, Flym! This is _my _life and I deserve to know, dammit! Why can't you both just realize that and stop trying to control me? _I can feel my eyes blurring as tears start to form at the edges, and angrily wipe at them with my knuckles, hating the feeling I got every time I cried – as if they didn't belong with me, as if there was something wrong and unnatural about me crying.

I manage to force the tears away, wondering for the hundredth time in my life why I had become such a crybaby ever since I found myself at Balamb's Infirmary.

_"SeeD party from Balamb Garden, please report to the second floor Reception Room. Repeat, SeeD party from Balamb Garden…"_

My eyes widen, and I can feel my breath catching in my throat before I reclaim the air knocked out of my lungs. "It's begun," I whisper aloud to my empty room, and grin slowly forming across my face at the prospect of getting things in motion, forgetting our argument for the time being at my joy. "Flym, they're finally here!"

I can feel Flym's amusement as I can't help but laugh and do a little dance around the room, gathering up the items from my bed in the process and minimizing them with Flym's magic before stuffing them down the pouch attached to my belt. I stop my twirling in front of the bathroom mirror again, hastily running a brush through my hair with one hand and putting on some of my make-up with the other (hey, I'm a girl still, so yes, even mercenaries do this…).

"How do I look?" I proclaim again, knowing that Flym can still hear me, examining my appearance in the mirror, the traces of my dream stashed deep inside my mind to be looked at for later. I'm dressed in some of my most comfortable clothes, consisting of black skinny jeans with short, grey and black combat boots and a thin brown leather belt with my traveling pouch attached to it; a navy blue top with sleeves to my elbows that clings tightly as to not get in the way when I'm running – courtesy of a shopping trip to Balamb a month ago – and a necklace Seifer gave to me on my sixteenth birthday, that's only a simple silver chain and a small charm of a star.

How utterly Seifer.

My heart gives a pang as I stare at the necklace, reminding me once again that Seifer has joined the Sorceress after all – Eriol had popped in yesterday with the notice before disappearing again to God knows where – but I force those thoughts away from my mind and hurry out to my room.

_Holsters, guns, jacket! _Flym chants in my head and I stop, remembering the conversation we had before the interruption came. Flym senses this and I can feel her nodding through my mind. _Yes, yes, we'll talk about that later, but now, you need to go if you want to meet up with them!_

Having no choice but to follow her words right now, I grab my holsters with the guns in them from the bedside table and strap them around my thighs, tightening them to make sure they won't slip off. Once I'm satisfied that I wouldn't be losing them in the midst of battle anytime soon, I rush towards my door and grab the black leather jacket hanging at the hook there, slipping it on and patting it down to make it more comfortable.

I leave it unzipped for now and lock my door behind me with a swipe of my student ID, feeling relieved at the fact that Martine had excused me from classes today to get ready, leaving the hallways relatively empty with no bothersome faculty staff to reprimand me as I rush from the dormitories and to the central area, cutting a few corners dangerously close and bumping into one or two students in my hurry. I catch a glimpse of Irvine lying lazily on the grounds outside Garden as I pass by a large window and roll my eyes, wondering as to how he can act so calm.

_Go, go, go! _Flym is cheering inside my head, accompanied by her usual childish laughter to the matching beat of my heart as I turn down the last hallway, the familiar golden pillar of light beginning to flash into my area of vision.

And beside it, walking forward in an unhurried pace – much to my amusement, seeing as how the same robotic voice is repeating the message from earlier over and over again on the speakers – are four different figures, talking amongst themselves quietly and taking in the grand sight of the ornate Galbadia Garden.

I'm afraid that my anticipating grin is going to break my face in half as I stop to catch my breath and raise my hand in the air in a wave, calling forward to the two people that I'm on speaking terms with.

"Hey! Zell, Selphie!"

The two turn at the sound of their names, surprised at someone having recognized them here, but I'm too excited to notice the expressions on their faces as I jog towards them, grinning from ear to ear.

"Kira!" Selphie finally bursts out, her own face breaking into a smile, and she gives me a small hug before stepping back and looking me over. "You're here!"

I can't help but laugh slightly at her observation. "No duh. I believe I transferred here a few days back." I joke and she giggles in abashment, but Zell is now looking at me with a large grin.

"Long time no see," I greet him, even as Flym comments in my mind – _I don't think I've ever seen you this happy before _– and I shoo her away. He sticks out his hand to shake and I do so, feeling something warm spread inside of me at the prospect of knowing somebody else here other than Irvine and Charlie.

"How've you been?" Zell asks and I shrug in answer.

"Okay, I guess. But now it's better that you guys here!" All three of us laugh, but we are interrupted by a cough coming from behind the two Balamb SeeDs.

"Squall," I say, smiling and nodding at the gunblade-wielder as Zell and Selphie turn to look at him. "It's nice to see you." I'm sorry to say that Squall and I have never been on friendly terms – he was a well known lone wolf at Balamb Garden, and my friendship with Seifer kept me away from him for the most part.

He nods back but doesn't say anything else, and it's then that I notice the black-haired young woman gazing at me curiously by his side. By her appearance and some mental prodding on Flym's side, I manage to recognize her as Rinoa Heartilly.

"Kira Lanning," I introduce myself, smiling at her and holding out my hand forward as I do so.

"Rinoa Heartilly," she smiles back, confirming my suspicions and takes my hand to shake it. "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know Zell, Selphie and Squall?"

I can detect the sincere curiosity in her voice – after all, it's not often a Galbadian cadet knows anybody from Balamb – and answer her truthfully. "I used to attend Balamb Garden with them before I was transferred to here a few days ago, and we all passed as SeeDs together."

"I see," she says, her eyes still regarding me curiously. "Why were you transferred?"

She asks a lot of questions, but I think I'll grow to like her overtime. "Student exchange program." I make a face, and she giggles at my distaste for it. "I got picked alongside a few other 'lucky' students to move here."

"I take it Balamb is nicer?" She asks in amusement and I send her a grin, and she laughs at the silent answer.

"Much."

Before we can go on in our conversation, Squall interrupts us again with a pointed look in our direction. "I'm afraid that we have to get going."

The voice calling for the SeeDs repeats itself again and I smile in abashment, realizing that I had forgotten about it for the time being. "Oh, right. I won't ask you what you're doing here right now, but you need to go to the second floor reception room, right?" As if the speakers aren't making that clear. They nod and I give a grin, falling into my role as a tour guide. "I'll show you there, then. Galbadia Garden is rather different from Balamb."

No one protests – not that they have much reason to, really, unless Squall suddenly becomes social and voices his dislike for me – and we start up the hallway leading to the second floor.

"…And to the right, we have numerous boring classrooms, some locker rooms, and an exceptional skating rink… you know, we need one at Balamb, would have been so much fun…" I ramble on as we pass the pillar of light, waving my hand in the vague direction of said hallway.

"We had one in Trabia, too!" Selphie pipes up, walking happily beside me and looking around in awe. "It actually helped really well when we were being taught balance as kids, and after that, we could always use it for skating!"

Both of us and Rinoa laugh, while Zell chuckles and Squall remains stoic, save for his exploring eyes, darting here and there – I can actually already see him blueprinting the place in his mind, in case of later use. Seems like something Squall would do.

_He's a very good warrior and would make a great leader, _Flym comments and I agree with her.

_Exactly. But he's too antisocial and aloof for my taste._

"To the left are the library and dormitories with some more classrooms, while past the stairs we have the auditorium and the courtyard, which usually replaces the cafeteria unless it's raining." Zell, Selphie and Rinoa – the more interested ones – take glances at the three students doing push-ups on the floor as we pass them, and the man watching over them casts a critical eye over me, no doubt wondering what I am doing out of class, but otherwise ignores me, to my relief.

"Here; the room you're supposed to wait in is just across from where you'll emerge." Squall gives me a nod in thanks – I can't help as my eye twitches in irritation – and starts up the metal staircase, while Selphie pauses and frowns at me.

"Can't you come up with us?" She asks and I blink at her, surprised, not expecting them to invite me to go up with them. I return her frown.

"I'm not sure…" I say, knowing that I could get in some mild trouble for being out with them. But Selphie isn't so easily deterred, it seems, and pouts, planting her hands on her hips.

"Come on! It concerns Balamb Garden, and since you were a student there up until a few days ago, it still concerns you!" Zell nods in agreement and Rinoa shrugs, not saying anything but giving me a small approving smile.

The warm feeling in my stomach starts up again, but is promptly squashed by Flym.

_Aww, _she coos, teasing. _Is little Kira making new friends? _

_Shush, Flym, _I shoo her away but her words have brought be to alert – sure, I would be traveling with these people, and sure, I would come to care for them to a certain extent, but I couldn't let myself come to care for anyone too much, unless I wanted to feel heartbreak at having to leave them all behind.

_Then what were Karen, Bella, and Marlene to you? _The thought springs unbidden to my mind, neither mine nor Flym's – I push it away, but it's shaken me and I give a tentative smile at the still waiting Selphie.

"Sure, I guess," I say at last and she breaks into a grin. "But if I get into any trouble for this, you're taking all the blame!" I playfully warn her as we start walking up and Selphie nods, still grinning, breaking into a run and grabbing mine and Rinoa's hands to tag along with her.

"Hey, wait for me!" We all laugh and shoot amused looks at Zell as he pouts at us and rushes to catch up, giving a mock-glare once we're on top of the stairs.

Squall raises an eyebrow once he sees me when we approach the door he's waiting by, and I gaze back into his eyes, not allowing myself to shift under his scrutinizing look.

"Kira's coming up with us," Selphie says to my relief, strolling past Squall and into the room as the doors ping open, almost as if she's oblivious to the way Squall reacted to my coming here. I have half a mind to believe that she is, but Flym's snort changes my opinion.

_She's a smart girl, _she says as I follow behind Rinoa into the lavishly furnished room. _She likes to give off that innocent, naïve appearance, while she can still crack a man's skull open with one hit of her weapon._

_She is still innocent and naïve, _I protest, dropping myself onto a couch beside Zell and following Selphie with my eyes as she skips to gaze out the window looking out into the courtyard. _Yes, I saw her fighting back at the field exam, but her mind hasn't exactly been opened to war and combat yet. _

Flym hums in agreement. _Perhaps. But, then again, no one's here has truly been, and along with that, you haven't experienced war first-hand, either._

I cross my arms over my chest, knowing her words to be the truth. _I know, Flym. But still – do people with minds such as hers really belong on the battlefield? _

I can feel Flym mulling it over before she replies. _Maybe, maybe not. In the end, it's their choice on what they want to do, isn't it?_

_Except mine, _I remind her and here, I can imagine her wincing from the reaction I can feel through our link. _I don't really have any other choice but fight, do I?_

"So, I'm surprised. You haven't asked us what we're doing here yet."

Startled, I drop my conversation with Flym and turn to Zell, who's looking at me with a guilty smile. "I mean," he continues, "If I were in your place, then we'd have been bombarded by questions already."

Squall snorts and Rinoa giggles in agreement, Selphie still staring off in her own little world by the window. I can't help but smile too, remembering the blond SeeD's slip up.

"I saw what happened on the broadcast, remember?" I remind him and the realization dawns on him. He hangs his head and sighs, clenching and unclenching his hands in agitation.

"So, I guess everybody heard what I said?" I wince at his words, knowing inside of me that if Zell hadn't revealed that they were from Balamb, things would have been much simpler. But, he had, so we had to work with what we did get.

"I guess," I answer him, not wanting to lie too much to him, even if it was going to hurt him. He glances up at me and I try to offer him a reassuring smile. "But, I'm sure that everything will be okay."

Zell sighs again and ruffles his hair, leaning back into the couch. "I hope so."

We wait in silence for a few more minutes before the doors open again and we glance up at the sound as Quistis enters, her face a perfect mask between left-over worry and relief.

Immediately, I can feel her eyes on me and I nod respectfully back at her. "Professor."

She gives me a small smile, but I can see her eyes warming slightly at the title. "There's no need to call me that anymore, Kira. I've been removed from that position a few days back."

I blink, realizing that I had forgotten that. "I'm sorry to hear that, Pro – Quistis." It feels strange, being allowed to call the one that's been teaching me for years now by her first name – as if she was the same rank as I was.

But, I guess now, she was. We were both SeeDs, weren't we?

"She showed us up here," Selphie answers to the blond woman's silent question, finally turning away from her window and coming to sit beside Rinoa on the couch opposite of Zell and I. "And since she was a Balamb student up until a few days ago, we thought that it would be okay for her to be here."

Quistis nods but doesn't say anything, turning her attention back to me. "I take it you know the basics of what's happened?"

"Yes," I reply before Squall interrupts us.

"How'd it go?" He asks quietly, and Quistis sighs.

"They understood our situation. And Balamb Garden is safe." Here, Zell's head snaps up before falling down in great relief. "The attack on the president in Timber was classified as an independent action. There was an official notice from the Galbadian government saying that Balamb Garden is not being held responsible."

Zell frowns, mulling the words over in his head. "So Seifer's taking all the blame?"

"The trial's over, and the sentence has been carried out…" A shocked silence fills the room and I can feel four pairs of eyes – excluding Rinoa's – glancing over in my direction. Seifer and I hadn't exactly kept it a secret that we were close friends.

Maybe more than friends, but nobody knows that yet.

"…He was… executed?" Rinoa's shaky voice brings us back to the matter at hand. Her head falls into her arms as she leans forward on the couch. "…Of course he was." She answers herself before anyone can. "He attacked the president. He sacrificed himself for the _Forest Owls_…"

I hide my frown. As much as I am beginning to like Rinoa – her attraction to Seifer being an entirely different thing altogether – her words seem rather selfish. How did she know that he did it just for that reason? Maybe all he wanted to do was piss off Balamb's faculty for not making him a SeeD and went to Timber to show up the team sent there, to say that he was just as good.

…Or maybe he did do it for Rinoa and her group. Who knows, really?

"It was your group that got Seifer involved in all this." Quistis seems to agree with me, although a bit, and her voice takes a slight accusing undertone. "You're a resistance faction, right? You must have been prepared for the worst. I'm sure Seifer was prepared, too. So don't think of it as Seifer sacrificing himself for you." She pauses as Rinoa's face pales even more, her eyes starting to shine brighter, and Quistis's own eyes soften a bit. "I'm sorry. I guess that wasn't much consolation."

"I...really liked him." Rinoa continues, as if Quistis had never said anything after a moment. "He was always full of confidence, smart... Just by talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world."

I was not feeling jealous. Really. But what she said about him… well, it _was _true. Seifer was a natural-born leader; he just didn't know how to be one correctly.

"Your boyfriend?" Selphie pipes up and I can't help the automatic glare my mind sends at her.

"I…I don't really know," Rinoa replies, looking down at her hands and frowning in thought. "I… I think it was love. I wonder how he felt…?" I frown, considering the same question with her. Seifer had never mentioned a word about her to either me, Fujin or Raijin last summer – what was he playing at? I know he was a flirt, but making a girl think she was falling in love with him?

"Do you still like him?" The question escapes my mouth before I can stop it, and Zell shoots me a curious look, and I remember him warning me about Seifer before we boarded the car to Balamb.

Rinoa shoots me a mirthless smile. "If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking about it. It was last summer… I was sixteen. A lot of fond memories…" She trails off, and her eyes take on the customary faraway gleam a person gets when they're thinking deeply about something.

I tune out the rest of the conversation, faintly registering Selphie and Zell arguing for a few moments before falling silent. Squall is standing to the side, his face exceptionally dark, and I don't even want to know what he's thinking… Quistis is standing by the water cooler to the side, gazing into her cup without even lifting it from the table.

All these people here, I realize, thinking that Seifer was… dead. But he wasn't, and I was the only one who knew that so far…

"I'm going to head out." I couldn't take it anymore. Their dreary mood was going to ruin mine, and I wanted to ride on the high of happiness for a while more.

Zell, Quistis and Selphie look up at me as I make for the door and a soft frown touches Quistis's face. "I know you and Seifer were close friends…"

I barely notice Rinoa raising her head curiously at the revelation, but I ignore it and shrug. "It's not that, really. Believe me when I say that Seifer won't die that easily." I let a smirk replace my grimace before sighing and straining a smile at the group. "I'll be hanging around downstairs somewhere, so wait up for me for a bit before leaving, okay?"

Selphie frowns. "But…"

"Don't worry," I reassure her with a grin. "I think I can safely say that you'll be seeing me again soon." I wink at their confused faces and shut the door tightly closed behind me.

I walk back to the front entrance of the Garden, keeping my mind partway in the clouds and partway on the task before me. I'm just about to pass the pillar the center when a loud yell interrupts my thoughts.

"Yo! Kira!"

The masculine voice that I've heard yelling so many times over the years is followed by two thuds of two people hitting the floor of the building, and I turn with a smile on my face just as Raijin and Fujin run up to me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask after greetings and pleasantries are exchanged between us. Raijin grins at me, hitting his chest with one fist proudly.

"What am I doin'? I'm a messenger, ya know?" He boasts, and I wait for him to explain it further. "Brought you a new order from Headmaster Cid, ya know?"

I frown, confused. "So you just dropped it off?" The burly teenager has the grace to look guilty, and he rubs the back of his head in sheepish embarrassment.

"Uh, not quite… we gave it to him yesterday, but wanted to stay, ya know?" Fujin snorts from beside him and I stifle my laugh as well.

"Nevermind. So, how have you guys been?"

"SEIFER."

I blink at Fujin, who appears to have taken charge over the talking, and ask, "What?"

"Oh yeah!" Raijin seems to remember their blond leader as well and looks at me closely. "Did you hear what happened to Seifer?"

I consider letting them know the truth, or just telling him what everybody else thinks, but settle inbetween and shrug in answer. "Everybody believes that Seifer's dead for his assault on the president and has been executed, but…" We share a look and Raijin and I exchange grins while a smile twitches on Fujin's lips. "You can't bring Seifer down that easily."

Raijin nods enthusiastically in agreement. "There's no way he'd put up with a trail, ya know? Or an execution, for that matter! It's just so not Seifer, ya know?"

"FIND," Fujin interrupts, and giving me a curt nod in good-bye, begins to stride off in the direction of the entrance.

"O'What…!" Raijin stares after her before sighing and grinning wide at me. "Looks like we're gonna meet up with Seifer. Later, Kira. We're going to head to Galbadia to look for him."

I smile back at him. "Good luck with that!" He yells his thanks, already running after his blue-haired companion down the hall and out the building.

"Raijin and Fujin?"

I jump as Squall comes up beside me, his arms crossed over his chest as he watches where they were with a small frown on his face. "What were they doing here?"

"They had a message to drop off for Martine from Cid," I say, watching the brunette out of the corner of my eye. He catches me looking at him and raises one brow in question.

I drop my Squall-watching and focus on the pillar of light in front of us.

_Wonder what's it made of, _Flym mumbles, and I can see her mind going _shiny-shiny-shiny _already and bite back my giggles. _It feels a bit like… _She trails off and retreats in thought, muttering nonsense to herself that I can't decipher, so I tune her out and look at Squall again.

"So, what will you guys be doing now?" I ask and he's silent for a minute before he answers.

"We'll be following whichever orders the Headmaster gives us," he replies quietly and I make a face – too much ordering around and rules for me to handle at the moment.

"Doesn't sound that fun," I comment and he glances down at my face – seeing as how I am shorter than him, dammit – in curiosity. "Following orders all the time, I mean," I elaborate. "Having to help kill not only stray monsters, but other people only on a word from your headmaster…"

Irvine's words from when we first met flash through my mind. "…Being a murderer for hire…." I mutter under my breath.

Squall is looking at me fully now, and it feels a bit strange to have all of his attention focused on me. "You're a SeeD, too."

I nod, not denying that, and stare off into the light of the central pillar with a frown. "Yes, but since G-Garden doesn't have SeeDs, I'm merely a higher ranked cadet here."

Squall's focus on me is lost and we stand side by side for a short while, waiting for the rest of their party to catch up, before Quistis emerges from the hallway, Selphie, Zell and Rinoa trailing alongside beside her.

"Well, it's time," she says to Squall and then turns to me with a small smile on her face. "It was nice seeing you again, Kira, even if you were…"

"Associated with the most troubled student at Balamb?" I finish for her and her smile turns a tad bit uncomfortable, but I laugh it off. "Don't worry, Quistis, it's fine to say the truth sometimes."

She inclines her head at me in good-bye and strides off with Squall, while the three others and I are left alone. "What did you mean, we'll be seeing you again soon?" Selphie finally bursts out, regarding me in open curiosity.

I smile widely and wink at them. "Exactly just that. Now, I think you need to get going before you get Squall and Quistis ticked off." They glance in the direction I'm looking at, where Squall has just left through the front door and Quistis is tapping her foot in impatience. She taps the space on her wrist where a wristwatch would go once she sees that she has our attention and sweeps out after the brunette gunblade wielder.

"Aw," Selphie pouts, crossing her arms over her chest in such a childish manner that it reminds me of Flym. "But I want to stay longer!"

Zell, who hasn't said anything up until now, nods in agreement. "Yeah. I mean, we just met up with you again! You gotta tell us whether the hot dogs here are as good as they are in Balamb, or even better…" He trails off and Selphie and I laugh while Rinoa looks on, slightly confused by Zell's behaviour.

"I'll see you guys again soon," I say after we've stopped, smiling, and turn around to head for the outer gardens of Galbadia Garden. "You can count on it!" I give them a vague wave as I walk off, turning the corner and disappearing from their sights.

Soon I'm outside, and despite the barren wastelands that surround the Garden, there is emerald grass planted to uplift the appearance of the building. Irvine is still lying on the same spot I saw him at earlier, his cowboy hat propped up over his face to keep out the sun.

"Hey," I greet as I stop by him, dropping myself onto the soft ground and leaning back on my hands with a satisfied sigh. "You ready for this?"

The brunette cowboy chuckles, reaching up with one hand to adjust the hat covering his face. I catch a glimpse of his smile as he answers. "I was born ready."

I laugh at his words and murmur an "Of course," before copying his position and lying back on the grass, gazing up into the vast expense of cloudless sky above us.

"Hey, Irvine?" I start up after a few minutes, the faint voice of our Headmaster floating to our ears over from the main entrance. "Do you think that Fate is cruel for doing this?"

He stiffens beside me slightly and lifts up his hat with one hand to look at me with calculating eyes. "Doing what, exactly?"

I wave my hand above me, still watching the blue sky. "This. Getting me here, getting us here into this position, getting us to help _them_…" I trail off and when he realizes that I won't be saying anything more, he gives a sigh and turns his eyes to the sky as well.

"How much do you really know?" He asks, and I have to ponder over the answer as something washes over me, overriding Flym's voice until she's nothing but a faint background noise in my mind. Everything in my mind seems clear and sharp now, almost as if a haze has been lifted off of it.

Flym's influence on my mind is gone, I realize.

"I don't know," I truthfully reply, still wondering as to what had happened and why my Guardian Force's block on the memories has disappeared.

_I'll __**always be**__ here. _

_Here? __**Where's here?**_

I frown at the two voices echoing around in my head, bringing one hand to rub at my ear, almost as if it would make them disappear. "I think that I know much more than I should, sometimes."

Irvine watches me curiously, almost hopefully, and I don't know why that is.

_This place. Y'know, __**home.**_

…_We __**don't have a **__home._

"…But then, the feeling disappears, and it's like I'm an outsider all over again, not really knowing anything in detail, only the basics of things…"

_Then __**what do you consider **__this?_

_It's an __**empty place with **__memories._

"…And then I realize that maybe, even after everything I've done, I really don't know anything at all and that I should give up."

_'It's time for us to go, little one.'_

I abruptly laugh as the voices stop, and shoot Irvine an embarrassed smile. "Sorry. I don't know what I'm saying, really. I think I didn't get enough sleep last night…"

The hopeful look in his eyes is gone and it pains me somehow, but I ignore it as he smiles back at me. "Always the crazy one, aren't you, little girl?" He asks and I swat at his shoulder, mock-annoyed at him.

"Look, just because I'm short, it doesn't mean that you can bug me with your annoying tall-ness…"

_"The orders say by means of 'a sniper' and a back-up member. We have no one with those skill."_

Squall's voice drifts through the air and we tense up, knowing that this is our cue to get going. Martine's chuckles reach our ears, and we exchange glances.

_"Don't worry about it. Let me introduce an elite sharpshooter and one of our higher-ranked students from Galbadia Garden. Irvine Kinneas, Kira Lanning!"_

I watch in amusement as with a hefty, over dramatized sigh, Irvine picks up his gun and stands up with his back to the group, no doubt giving them a view of his tan coat and cowboy hat.

"Shall we?" He says, offering me a hand with a charming smile, and I accept it as he effortlessly pulls me up.

"We shall," I reply, grinning, and we turn to look at the group of mismatched SeeDs and their employer, all nothing but growing teenagers and young adults in the real world that are trying to reach their goals and dreams through the means presented to them.

And as Irvine and I walk forward, side by side, the two children's voices that came when Flym was pushed away are gone again with Flym replacing them, mumbling something under her breath. I pay her no attention, instead focusing on smiling happily at a grinning Selphie, Zell and Rinoa, glad that there are at least some people looking forward to fighting with me again.

_And, maybe, _I think as Headmaster Martine nods at us and gets in the Garden car, soon zooming off into the distance of the one place I'll be glad to leave, _This won't be so bad after all._

I send a dazzling smile at a stoic Squall as he runs his calculating eyes over us, sealing my fate all over again.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **a couple of typos, fixed the present-past style to present time.


	11. Watch The World Pass By

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 10/01/09**

_Chapter XI  
__**Watch The World Pass By**_

"Train, train take us away…take us far, far away!"

Selphie's humming reaches my ears as I lean against the door of the lavishly furnished SeeD cabin, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back against the wooden panels with a sigh.

_"Why didn't you tell us that you were coming?" Selphie pouts, planting her fists on her hips, and sends me a glare. I avoid her gaze, rubbing the back of my head in chagrin._

_"I wanted it to be a surprise?" I ask, smiling, and the brunette rolls her eyes before a grin worms its way onto her face and she leans forward to hug me, trapping my arms against my sides harder than necessary. _

_"Glad to have you back, then!" Zell grins, listening in on our conversation, and I mouth a 'thanks' back at him._

"Selphie… we're destined to be together!"

"Y-yeah right…!"

"A sigh of love?"

"N-no!"

_"We…we are to assassinate the sorceress."_

_"No frikkin' way!" Zell protests, his hands clenched into fists at his sides and glaring at a motionless Squall. "You're kidding me, right?"_

_Squall shakes his head and continues reading from the mission papers clutched tight in his hands. "We're to shoot her from afar. Kinneas will be our sharpshooter, and Lanning as the back-up. Should both snipers fail, we're to attack head on."_

_Selphie's pretty green eyes widen. "But that's…"_

_"Suicide?" I finish for her, grimacing at the prospect. "Exactly. If Irvine fails, then there will be such a low chance of the sorceress not retaliating that it would be better for us to charge right in, instead of taking the chance of shooting her again."_

_Irvine rolls his eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," he remarks sarcastically. "But I never miss my target." His eyes flicker over to Selphie for the merest of moments and I stifle down my snicker, noting that I was the only one who noticed._

_Squall ignores him, and keeps his attention focused on me. "Then why are you here?" He asks, his tone cold, and I glare at him. Really, hating me just because I was friends with his arch-nemesis. How childish of him. _

You do the same thing, _Flym points out, speaking up at last, and I ignore her._

_"Precaution," I reply, just as coolly. Two could play this game. If he didn't want me to get close to him at all, then fine, I would do the same thing._

_"And what if you do fail?" Rinoa asks after a few moments of Squall and I glaring at each other, her voice doing a weak job of hiding the tremor there. "What then?"_

_"We can't refuse this mission," Quistis answers, grimacing in disgust. "It's a direct order from both Galbadia and Balamb Gardens, hence all the more important."_

_Zell scowls and spits on the ground in distaste before striding away towards the Garden entrance in anger._

Irvine's pleasant "Pardon me," is all the warning I get before the SeeD cabin door is pushed open from the other side, sending me stumbling onto the floor. I brace myself with my hands and, glowering into the carpet, sit up from my position to face the person that's entered.

"Yes, Squall?" I ask, honestly attempting to keep my voice polite. The brunette SeeD regards me blankly for a moment before reaching into one of his pockets and withdrawing something.

"You don't have a Guardian Force with you, do you?" Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have an extremely annoying one currently singing in my head, but that's really none of your business.

"Not really, no."

Squall nods and throws the stone panel at me to catch before leaving the room. "To keep you from dying out there while you're under my supervision. We'll be arriving at Deiling soon also, so get ready and meet us at the cabin."

Ignoring the last part of his orders, I examine the smooth purple stone in the palms of my hands, running one finger over it. The color of the GF's stone often told what powers it represented – for example, I remember Shiva's was light blue, showing she was an Ice elemental, while Fire and Lightning elementals such as Ifrit and Quezacotl are red and yellow, respectively.

_Hm, Poison, maybe? _

_No, I doubt it, _Flym murmurs back – her stone a light grey if I recall correctly, for Confusion – before sighing. _Send it up, will ya?_

_You won't mind someone finding out about you? _

She shrugs. _Us Guardian Forces can't reveal what we know about someone else's mind. And besides, it's getting boring up here, with no one to properly talk to._

I regard her suspiciously for a second, replaying her words in my mind. _…I'm pretty sure that you just called me stupid to some degree, but I'll ignore it. _She sends me a cheeky smile, taking full control of the visual link between us, before beginning to hum a tune to herself.

Rolling my eyes at her antics, I bring the small stone up to my forehead, wincing as the whooshing sensation of the spirit entering leaves me brain-dead for a moment before it settles, sending out tendrils of its energy throughout my mind.

_Finally, someone other than that angsting young man! _The voice calls out as soon as it is satisfied with what it's found, chuckling in a deep, male baritone. _You wouldn't believe how confused that guy is – don't get me wrong, he's okay and all, but he needs to take a moment to chill and relax and not take up the whole world onto his shoulders._

Oh, yes, this Guardian Force and I will get along _very _well.

_Yes, well, Squall tends to be like that, _I answer back, grinning. _And who might you be?_

A brief flash of a black and red demon, wings spread apart behind him as he hovers before my eyes, his horned face regarding mine before it's gone. _Diablos, Prince of Darkness at your service, m'am. _His voice adapts a charming undertone to it and I can almost see him giving a mock-bow in introduction.

_Kira Lanning, _I say back, giggling, and I can just imagine Flym already going gaga over him. _SeeD of Balamb Garden/Galbadia, no other title necessary, pleased to make your acquaintance._

Flym brings the attention to her as her link joins our, flowing alongside Diablo's – a black thread stretched from my conscience to his with Flym's grey line humming with energy as she speaks.

_Nice to meet you, _she exclaims, and with a deeper glimpse into the part of the brain where GFs reside lets me see the fairy look-alike bouncing over to the demon towering above her and holding out a hand, all the while beaming like the sun. _I'm Flym._

Diablos regards her amusedly before taking her fragile hand in his clawed one and shaking it. _Pleasure to meet you. _

The two start discussing something or the other that holds no particular interest to me – something about spirits, their past lives, other Guardian Forces – so I check my pockets to see whether I have everything or not and, satisfied, exit through the door.

The rest of the group is already gathered when I enter the cabin, the door shutting behind me and the PA system beeping – _"We will be arriving in Deiling soon; please make sure you've gathered all your belongings with you…" _– so, noting that Irvine is attempting to flirt with both Rinoa and Selphie at the same time (I'd imagine he'd tried with Quistis, too, but one of her glares managed to send him off) I walk over to Zell and lean against the window beside him.

It's quiet between us, but I can see the blonde martial artist taking quick glimpses into the sharpshooter's direction, a scowl slowly forming on his face.

"Who does he think he is?" He growls out, glaring at Irvine as Rinoa's face turns a slight shade of pink and she turns on her heels to hurry and stand beside a glaring Quistis, half-hiding behind the older woman. Selphie is glowing positively red by now when he turns his complete attention to her, but she doesn't move from her spot, instead settled on trying to ignore his playful advances.

I can't help the smile that lights up on my face at seeing my friend acting as he always does. "Don't worry, Zell," I attempt to reassure my other teammate, biting my lip in order to hide my giggles as Quistis' glare begins to deepen by the second. "Irvine's always like this, but I'm pretty sure that he never actually really means it."

Zell's scowl doesn't ease up, but he crosses his arms and looks out the window. "Whatever," he mutters, not unlike Squall – who's watching this with an annoyed expression growing on his face – and after a few more moments, Quistis can't take it anymore and turns to her 'Instructor Mode' – complete with a perfected glare, stern voice, and posture that shows she means business.

You can't help but admire her at times like these.

"Irvine Kinneas!" She barks, and the brunette in question looks up, startled, from where he's smiling at a flushed Selphie. "You are playing an important part in all of this," she continues, glaring, her fingers twitching for the whip nestled on her hip, "Behave yourself or I will have you thrown off this train right this instant!"

I don't think she can really do that, but then again, it's Quistis Trepe we're talking about here and the door and window _are _right here…

It seems Irvine realizes this too, and with a dramatic sigh, he turns away from Selphie and begins the 'oh, woe is me' speech that I have grown rather used to.

_Here we go again, _I remark, caught in between laughing and grimacing. Diablos stops in his running commentary of the sharpshooter's flirting – being a flirt himself, I can tell – and Flym snickers in answer to my comment.

"No one understands me..." He begins to proclaim, spreading his hands out before him as he moves farther into the center of our cabin. "Sharpshooters are loners by nature... We hone our instincts, pour our whole being into a single bullet. The pressure of the moment..." He shoots an imaginary pistol with one hand at the wall behind Quistis. "An instant of tension..." He pauses for dramatic effect before continuing. "That's what... I have to face alone... ...It's not easy. So like... Just do me a favour, and let me be!" He runs his eyes over all of us, his voice dramatized but I know there's a spark of truth for him hidden beneath the words.

"You get my drift?" When silence meets his ears, he ends the speech and turns to grin at me. "You understand what I'm saying, don't you, Kira?"

It's taking the larger part of me not to laugh, seeing as how both my GFs are now roaring in complete amusement. "'Course," I say, not managing to completely hide the chuckle that escapes me. "You know it, Irvine. We're all lone wolves by nature, aren't we?"

I catch Zell's grimace beside me. "Kira, if you turn like him…"

I laugh outright at this and send him a wink, smirking. "Don't tempt me."

Selphie breaks out into giggles at this, relaxing now that Irvine's away from her, and Rinoa and Quistis both break into smiles while Zell looks at me in horror.

"You're kidding, right?" He asks, and my smirk widens. Slinging an arm around the blonde's shoulders, I half lean my weight against him and bat my eyelashes at him.

"Would you like me to be the female Irvine?" I ask Zell, managing to turn my smirk into a flirtatious grin. His cheeks flush slightly but seeing as how he's becoming a tad uncomfortable with what I'm doing – poor, poor Zell, so naïve to girls and their teasing; how is he ever going to survive? – I back away and begin laughing loudly as Selphie, Rinoa and Irvine join me.

Zell's cheeks turn red in embarrassment and I send him an apologetic grin. "We're not laughing at you, Zell. Really. But if you want to get together with that one girl you like, then you seriously need to work on your approach to us ladies."

_You've been spending too much time around Seifer, _Flym cackles in my head before giving the debriefing on the relationship between Seifer and I to a curious Diablos.

"And Selphie," I turn to her, ignoring Zell as he starts spluttering at my remark on his interest in the library girl. "Ignore Irvine. He's a humongous flirt – as long as it has a female figure, he's Casanova in human flesh." He sends me a hurt look here, but we both know that what I'm saying is true so I know he's not really mad.

"If he really does like you," I hope you're getting the hint, Irvy, I really do, for your own good. "Then he'll find a way to show it." The poor girl is turning red again, but Irvine has this thoughtful look on his face before he wipes it off with another one of his disarming smiles.

"Of course, dear Selphie," he cuts in, sending her the full blow of the Irvine Charm. "Just watch me. I'll capture your heart yet." Winking, he tips his hat in her direction before striding over to lean on the wall opposite of us, beside Squall – who hasn't said a word yet, at all. I'm not kidding you; the guy's been quiet the whole entire time, and it's rather freaky.

"Way to be social, Squall," I mutter to myself, levelling a look in his direction. He catches it and stares back, raising one eyebrow, before dropping his eyes to the floor again. So, the metal is more interesting than I am? Thaaaanks, Squally. You're such a dear – you sure know how to charm a girl.

But the floor is rather pretty… I mean, it's all made of metal and I can see our reflections in there…

_Please tell me that you're not another airhead, _Diablos' pleading, straight-forward claim brings me out of staring at the floor, mesmerized, and I flush, sending a glare his way.

_Of course I'm not! _I answer, rather insulted at being called a moron. _I just tend to…_

_..Have the attention span of a five-year-old? _Flym finishes for me, grinning, and I send her a mock-glare.

_**You**__ have the attention span of a two-year-old kid hyped up on sugar, _I retaliate, and she pouts, crossing her arms over her chest and sticking her nose in the air.

_As amusing as this is, _Diablos interrupts our dispute; _I believe it's time for you to leave to this Deiling City you're all so keen on getting to. _

I take my mind out of, well, my mind, and manage to grip onto the thin windowsill just as the train shudders to a stop, sending most of us staggering off our balance for a few seconds before righting ourselves. The PA system dings, announcing our arrival, and opens the door behind Squall – who's, unfortunately, not leaning against it anymore – with a cheery little, "_We hope you enjoyed your ride."_

"Deiling City!" Selphie cheers, even as we all suddenly remember why we are here in the first place. The part of me that's grown used to living here is murmuring that this is a _very _bad idea and that we should all turn tail and run, no matter the consequences of abandoning a mission before it's even begun, since our own lives are worth so much more.

I squash that little voice protesting inside my head, shutting it up with "Nothing too bad is going to happen to us. What's so bad about staying inside some prison for a while, from which we break out of anyways?"

"I wonder if Sir Laguna is here…" Selphie says under her breath as we step off the train, the announcements for the trains traveling to Timber and back to Garden echoing in the air. Squall and Quistis take off in a sure stride towards the escalators leading out of the train station, ever the confident ones, with Rinoa tagging hesitantly behind them – it takes me a moment to remember why – while Zell, Selphie and I fall back, Irvine walking behind us.

"'Sir Laguna'?" I whisper back, curious, and Selphie nods.

"He's a Galbadian soldier that lives here."

"You know him?" I ask, raising an eyebrow, and the brunette girl shakes her head sheepishly.

"Um, no… but…" She takes a glance around, lowering her voice for reasons unknown to me after she makes sure that no one unnecessary is listening in on us. "We've been seeing him in our dreams these past few days… Squall, Zell, Quistis and I. He was at some ruin in Centra with Ward and Kiros – his companions – the last time we saw him." A frown mars her face. "I hope he's okay, after taking that dive off the cliff…"

She continues to tell me about his adventures and I listen in with one ear as we continue walking, mentally running my mind through half-coherent memories from years ago.

_Ellone, _Flym pipes in, ever the helpful one. _She sends people back into the past, remember?_

Oh yeah. I had forgotten about her…wait…Ellone; brown hair, white skirt, green shawl…

Oh frudge. She's the girl that walked in on Seifer and I a few days earlier, isn't she?

_I was wondering when you'd realize that, _Flym says, sensing the direction my thoughts are going in.

_God, that is so… embarrassing! _

_Why so? _She suddenly asks, all traces of playfulness gone, and I find that I can't really answer that question without having my mind wonder off in directions that I don't want it to go in.

_If you don't mind me asking, _Diablos – who I had forgotten about, much to my growing embarrassment – interrupts, his voice taking up an edgy undertone. _Just how do you know all of this?_

He must have seen the memories I just went through, I realize with horror.

Oh, _shit._

_Well, um… _My attempts to answer are half-baked and not really sincere, and noticing that Squall and Quistis have stopped ahead of us, I take the chance to escape. _Flym, you answer! Get Eriol in there if you want to._

She sends me a criticizing look before sighing and warping our link to a mere shimmer, where I can't make out what's she saying to the demon Guardian Force. This bothers me a bit, knowing that she quite possibly might be telling him my whole life story – with both the details I want and don't want anyone to know – but Rinoa begins speaking beside me and I find myself drawn back into the real world.

"We just have to take the 08 bus," she answers to a question I didn't hear. "It will take us to the Caraway Mansion." Squall nods and turns to wait for the bus to arrive, and for the first time since actually arriving here, I take a look around me.

Deiling City is… beautiful. The evening has not yet begun, so the circular fountain in the center of the plaza spawning out before us is sparkling in the sun, droplets of water dancing in the air with soothing gurgles. A few people are sitting on the edges of it, conversing or reading – I can see a Galbadian student there, from the uniform, most likely studying – and others stride by us, an excited under edge hovering in the air from the prospect of the sorceress making her appearance later today.

At the thought, my eyes fly to the towering arch standing over in the distance, the iron gates not visible from this distance but I still know that they're there, and the thought sends my stomach into nervous butterflies. Not the good kind, either – instead of twirling and humming as they should be, they're plummeting down to the bottom of my feet and stumbling over each other.

…Okay, Kira, get your mind away from those weird thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" Rinoa suddenly asks beside me and I realize that my emotions must have been showing on my face. I send her a sheepish smile.

"…Just, butterflies in my stomach plummeting down to Gaia." She sends me a startled look at this and I rub the back of my head. "Nevermind. What about you?"

She takes her eyes off of me and gazes into the distance, biting her bottom lip in worry. "Just nervous, I guess."

"Because of the General?" I ask and she turns to me again, surprised.

"How do you know about that?" She asks, a frown touching her lips at the reminder of her father, and I shrug.

"I've been in Galbadia for only a few days, but Irvine's told me most of the stuff that's going on here." I reply back, sticking to the truth, since Irvine and I have been talking to each other about what's been going on at our different sides of the world.

Rinoa sighs and glances down at her shoes. "Yeah, that, too. I mean…" She trails off and runs a hand through her hair in frustration.

"I won't say anymore," I offer, smiling, and she sends me a grateful look. "Let's just focus on the Sorceress, then."

She grimaces at the thought. "That's not too comforting, either," she attempts at a joking tone, but it doesn't help either one of us and we fall silent, waiting for the bus to get here.

I look around some more, taking in the sight of the green trees kept behind little black fences, stone sidewalks and the parade balloons floating in the distance. Roads lead off in three separate directions away from where we are, several cars and busses passing by, until one stops in front of us with a shuddering tremble and a fume of smoke.

"Finally," I catch Zell muttering to himself as we pile in – it's free, believe it or not! – and settle into the worn leather seats. A few other people are already inside and don't pay us any attention as the bus sets off again, bumping along the cement road.

I sigh and lean back into my seat, turning to look out the window and passing scenery as we drive by. Selphie is doing the same behind me, her eyes bright as she watches for any sign of 'Sir Laguna' – not like he'd be here, though, but she doesn't know that yet, I suppose – while Zell stretches his arms over his head beside her.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," I mutter all of a sudden to myself, attracting the attention of Irvine.

"Killin' off the Sorceress?" He asks, keeping his voice low as to not attract anyone's attention – thankfully, we're all sitting at the back of the bus, with no one but the rest of our group sitting around us to overhear.

I nod. "Yeah. I mean, she's this super powerful woman, and they expect us to just go and get it over and done with?" My lips curl in distaste at the prospect. It's as if they want us to die as fools.

"Maybe it's fate," Irvine replies quietly, repeating the words I know have been running through his mind, and I scoff at the idea.

"Maybe it is. Who knows? All I _do _know is that fate has it bad for us. Either that, or it hates us. Big time."

He lets out a bark of laughter at this, Zell sending a startled look at the back of his head as he does so.

"You really like being bitter, don't you?" The Galbadian remarks, shaking his head and smiling in amusement.

I shrug. "I guess. But it's hard not to, when…" I trail off, berating myself for forgetting yet again. Maybe some day I'll tell them, but not today.

"When what?" There – there's that hope in his eyes again, barely visible, a hope I can't completely understand. I frown as I take a glimpse into his eyes, feeling as if there's something I should know – _something that Eriol isn't telling me_, an inner-voice of mine speaks up, and I find myself wondering whether it's right or not.

Eriol wouldn't keep anything too important from me, would he…?

"It's nothing," I manage out, remembering that Irvine is still wanting an answer. He frowns, sending me a look and I attempt to smile. "Maybe, one day…" I shake my head and leave my sentence unfinished, gazing off out the window, watching the buildings of the shopping arcade pass by us.

"I think we got on the wrong bus," I catch Rinoa saying to Quistis a few seats in front of us, and I giggle a bit. With our luck, I'm kind of surprised we aren't out of the city altogether yet.

"So," I say after a few minutes of somewhat uncomfortable silence between Irvine and I, wanting to break it. "About Selphie…"

I hear her squeak behind me and catch her sinking lower into her seat from the corner of my eye when I turn to smirk at Irvine. After all, what kind of friend would I be, if I didn't at least _try _to get them together? It was obvious enough that Irvine was already fond of her – starting from back when they were kids, most likely – but without her memories of it, she'd need time to gather up her own feelings for him.

The sharpshooter catches my eyes and raises his eyebrows. "Yeah?" Wow, either he doesn't know that she's sitting right behind us, being lost in his thoughts and all – I wouldn't put it past him, even though it's so unlike him – or he's a very good actor.

I smile at him, letting my voice drop down to a whisper so Selphie and Zell wouldn't overhear us. "If you hurt her, in any way, shape, or form…" His eyebrows go higher at the menacing tone my voice has taken. I know I'm not supposed to care, but I _am _a girl, and us girls tend to do stupid things when friends of ours like one of our other friends.

"…I'll take your own gun and shove it so far down your throat that, I swear, it'll come out the other way."

"I get it," Irvine interrupts, cracking a nervous smile and paling a bit in the face. I wouldn't really do something like that, but I _would _hurt him. Many times over.

I nod, my smile still plastered in my face. "Good. I know what's going on through your mind, Irvy." He winces slightly at the babyish nickname, knowing that I'm only using it to annoy him. "…You just have to give her some time. Don't force your flirting too much on her, because that will just leave her even more confused…oh, and don't go around charming Rinoa and Quistis too much, either." I add the last part as an after-thought and satisfied, lean back to watch out the window again.

"I didn't know that you cared that much," Irvine says after a moment, gazing out to the front of the bus distractedly. I mull his words over in my mind a bit, trying to settle on an answer.

"I don't think I really do; not yet, anyways," I reply after a moment's hesitation. "But, we are friends – you, her, and I – so I'll try to be a good friend and do what's for the best for you."

"…Huh." It's silent between us again before Irvine reaches up with one hand to tussle at my hair with a smirk. "You're a strange little girl."

I groan and bat his hand away, attempting to fix the mess my hair has become. "Irvine, I'm the same age as you. It's not my fault that you grew up to be an abnormally tall giant."

"No, I find it that you're at fault for being so short."

…_I hate people poking at my height. It's not my fault. _There's no response from Flym or Diablos, so I take it they're still talking – or exploring my memories – and with the new weight I can feel in my mind that signifies Eriol, I'm leaning towards the latter of the two.

I send a glare at a grinning Irvine. "…I hate you."

He winks. "That's what they all say."

We get to Caraway Mansion a few minutes later, the bus stopping to a halt with another bump even though the road is entirely smooth; I just blame it on the way these buses are made. They have humongous, almost carriage-like wheels, and don't appear to be all that safe. I eye them as we get off, imagining them falling away from the bus itself and rolling down the road while the bus just crashes down onto the road there, looking all sad and pathetic.

Aw, it's making me sad. Have you ever noticed how the headlights on cars look too much like eyes? Really. It's probably because of those stupid movies portraying cars as such, but the thought will never leave my mind now.

The bus rolls out of sight and around a corner with a puff of smoke out of its tailpipe, and I hurry to catch up to the rest of my team, who, by now, are arguing with the guard standing at the entrance to the mansion, prohibiting us from entering.

"We're SeeDs," Squall's cold voice cuts through the air, and the poor man has the sense to wince slightly at the glare being sent his way from not only a frustrated Squall, but Quistis and Zell as well.

"Shouldn't that be enough proof?" He continues and the guard sets his jaw, staring straight into Squall's opposing eyes. Wow, the man's got guts, after all. It's like looking into the eyes of a hungry lion…

Haha, lion, Lionhart…

…Right. Back to more important matters than my lame puns.

"Caraway wants us to prove our skills," Selphie explains to me after I murmur the question, having not been there to hear the start of the conversation. I frown.

"Oh? Didn't he hire us in the first place though?" Selphie shrugs, not knowing the answer herself, so we return to listening in to the rest of the argument.

"We came all the way out here just for a test of our courage!" Zell protests, voicing all of our opinions. "Who the hell does he think we are?"

The guard gives him a disapproving look, his voice rising higher in anger. "There are many students like you who wish to call upon General Caraway!" Really? I didn't think he fought – just went ahead and controlled the country's army. Hmm. Wasn't he, like, somewhere in his fifties now though? Although, he did have a lot of political power. "There was a student here yesterday from Galbadia Garden who has yet to return from the test at Tomb of the Unknown King. You're to go inside and retrieve his student ID number from his weapon, then report back here before sundown."

Oh wow. He's talking about the guy's death as if it was nothing! If that place is so dangerous, then why the hell is Caraway sending us there! Yeah, they really _do _want us to die as fools. I mean, hello, tomb of some king (even if he is supposedly unknown… why is there a tomb for him then, though? Was it already there when Deiling was built? Ooh, history…) so there would be monsters or guardians or something of the sort keeping watch.

But, it's history, and I like this world's history… chance of being killed, or history? Hard choice…

Wait. If I die, then I'm not going home. And getting home is of topmost priority. Right.

So, sticking to Squall and Quistis – they are the most advanced in battle here, I'm sure – just in case, and running from any battles that get too serious.

"…The Tomb lies to the northeast of the city; here, use this map, you'll need it. Don't linger after you find the ID or you might not come out alive… there are rumours flying around of savage beasts who live deeper in the tomb. Some say they are a Guardian Force, but it's better not to risk it."

Uh, yeah, actually, if I know our group well, we _are _going to head all the way in and obtain these 'beasts'. What were they again? Something like 'Brothers' or whatever. I can't remember much about them at all… Eriol better get his ass over and help me when the time comes, if he wants me to survive this.

Squall pockets the map into one of his pockets and nods curtly at the guard as a form of 'thank-you' – though with Squall, that's usually all you get – before brushing past us, back into the street.

"Um," I say after a few moments of us staring after him. "Does anyone actually know how to _get _to the exit?" We all exchange panicked looks, not liking the idea of getting lost in the semi-large city – much larger than Balamb and Timber, that's for sure – but Rinoa grins and nods.

"I do," she says, following after Squall. "Come on, follow me. We need to hurry if we want to get this done before the sun goes down."

Squall meets up with us a few minutes later, having been loitering outside the stone walls of the mansion, obviously not knowing where to go either. With grim determination – because, after all, the Tomb _does _sound dangerous – we set forward to the outskirts of the city.

The large clock tower in the center of the city ticks away with every second, and so begins our race against time.

Sort of. We still have about four hours until the deadline, but who knows how long we'll take. Maybe we can rent a car? Ooh, that would be nice, indeed. I have a feeling we'll need all the energy we can get for tonight.

Right. Focus. Be in your Zen. Forget all your distractions. _Ohhhhmmm._

…Okay, that's not working, so just…uh… prepare yourself for battle; there'll be a ton of them in the next few hours. Pep-talk time!

Wonderful. I can't wait until I'm home again, safe and sound in a world where there is no magic, monsters, or sorceresses trying to take over.

I can't wait until I get home again, period.

Right…?

-~o~-

**Things edited: **a couple of typos, fixed the present-past style to present time.


	12. DATABASE : VISION I : BEGINNING

_EVERY STORY MUST HAVE A BEGINNING._

He doesn't sleep.

His eyes haven't opened yet, but the darkness he hasn't known existed shines bright before his space of vision, somehow blinding yet clear as he watches shapes form throughout the abyss. A thought passes through what he decides must be his brain that he should be afraid, worried as to why he's here and what he's doing. Why he can't open his eyes, or form his lips to speak startled words, or why he feels so incomplete.

But he doesn't know how to fear, so he floats there and watches the darkness.

Soon, a ticking sound reaches his ears and his mind processes it, bringing up numbers and images that he doesn't know exist. He doesn't know where they're coming from or how he knows it, but the darkness moves with an abrupt shift and numbers flash, going _zero:zero:fifteen _and the number changes with every tick, flashing green and he settles down before the apparition, moving with no body and no spirit. He wonders if he could be described as a _ghost_, but he's certain that he is not dead, bearing the fact that he hasn't felt alive yet.

At _03:03:00, _he's startled as the darkness shifts yet again and the abyss is shot with color, vibrant reds and yellows and greens and he can smell fresh grass that he has never seen before. He's flying through a rainbow of color and he thinks he can feel warmth touching his fingertips, but that's wrong, right? His mind tells him he cannot feel, and therefore the feeling is nothing but an illusion.

His vision is dark again. The clock inside of him is still ticking, but he cannot see, and he wonders if the feeling he should have is the one of _being afraid. _There is no more color or freshly cut grass, but the faint hum of electricity and the clicking away on keyboards.

One word flashes before him, sudden and pale green, flickering as it floats before his eyes.

_HELLO._

--

The words tell him many things. Screens are lighting up all around him, showing the Outside World and the sky and the mountains and the houses and the people. The man on the other side of the wall is called _The Professor, _and he has a wife and a daughter and is so very glad to be able to speak with him for once. The Professor once mentions that he does not have a name, and he asks what it is that The Professor calls him.

The words are hesitant, but they come.

_MULTIPLE _

_INTELLIGANCE _

_DIMENSIONAL_

_SYSTEM_

_OF_

_TRAVEL._

His automated mind rushes to form meaning for the words. They hurt a bit at first, but the feeling is gone in half a second and his mind lights up the words on the screen.

_**M**__ULTIPLE _

_**I**__NTELLIGANCE _

_**D**__IMENSIONAL_

_**S**__YSTEM_

_OF_

_**T**__RAVEL._

The Professor is satisfied. _MIDST IT IS, THEN, _the words appear, dancing before his vision and he watches them do so. He tries out the name in his mind, watching it appear one by one on the screens around him.

_MIDST, _the name scribbles over and over again, green ink against black static.

He thinks it should fit him.

* * *

D:

Yes, this does relate to the main story. Very well, in fact. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to get out the next main plot chapter, but I'm so stuck on the Tomb of the Unknown King. If I could just make it disappear…-sigh-

Yeah. Again, also sorry for taking this long… school started today. –dies- High school. My homeroom teacher is a grumpy very old man with horrible jokes. Thank God I only see him thrice a week.

Hopefully until next time,

_Banana Gun _


	13. You, Me, and the World

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 06/07/10**

_Chapter XII  
__**You, Me, and the World**_

_**-~o~-**_

_"Broken bottles under children's feet_

_Bodies strewn across the dead end street_

_But I wont heed the battle call_

_It puts my back up_

_Puts my back up against the wall…"_

-~o~-

"James! Honey, turn down the music, it's time to go already!"

Twelve-year old James Lanning rolls his eyes as the sound of his mother's voice floats up the stairs to where he's sitting in his room, a small radio at his hands as he tunes it from station to station. The lyrics of _Bloody Sunday _get cut off from the air as he sets it down onto his desk with a sigh, picking up the jacket hanging at the back of his chair before shutting the bedroom door behind him as he exits. The house is silent as he walks down the carpeted hallway, past both opened and closed doors alike, until the stairs come into view, where he can hear his mother tapping her foot against the polished marble floors in agitation.

His parents barely spare him a glance as he descends, taking in their appearances – his mother, Elizabeth Lanning, looks worn down and tired for the moment, her face sparse of makeup and her expensive designer clothes wrinkled as she paces the entrance hall. His father, Carl Lanning stands by the door, watching her do so with a somewhat amused expression on his face, the complete opposite of his wife – his dark hair is brushed back neatly and his suit is sharp and stiff, his shoes polished and shining in the light.

Elizabeth finally glances at her son, taking in his appearance with a critical eye. "James," she says in exasperation, walking forward to smooth back his messy hair-do. "I told you to get ready fifteen minutes ago."

The boy shrugs uncomfortably under his mother's touch, inching away from her searching hands as she straightens his button-up shirt in a hurry. "It's fine, Mom. It's not like anyone will see us there anyways." _And you don't exactly look the best yourself_, he adds in his mind but stays silent as she finally gives up on his grooming.

"Alright," the redhaired woman agrees at last, stepping back to smooth down the wrinkles on her own suit. James watches her do so, not understanding why his parents insist on being dressed up every time for the occasion.

No one looks good under the hospital light, anyway.

-~o~-

Carl Lanning is a smart man.

He married the woman now sitting beside him in the car years back – what was it now? Twelve years? Oh yes, he believes so – after meeting her at a party thrown by their bosses in an attempt to intermingle the two separate branches of their corporation. Elizabeth looked stunning back then, he remembers, her face radiant as she laughed under the lamps of the glowing ballroom, a glass of champagne in one hand as she chatted amongst her coworkers.

He asked her to dance and she accepted with a smile, setting her glass on a passing by waiter's tray, and his eyes noted the lack of a wedding band on her ring finger.

It was love at first dance.

They were wedded seven months later. Elizabeth had a daughter at the time, a little girl named Kira, with large grey eyes and shining red hair and was the exact replica of what he imagined Elizabeth looked like as a child, that he was very surprised when his wife told him that she was adopted.

"But she looks exactly like you," he had replied back, staring at her in astonishment as she ran a finger over Kira's baby photo album. Elizabeth had smiled and shaken her head, staring far off into space at something he couldn't see.

"It's strange," she had answered back at last after a moment of silence, the smile curling at her lips turning a bit secretive. "She looks just what I had imagined my first child to look like, had she lived. I wonder…" Her voice trailed off and then she laughed quietly to herself, waving a hand in the air as if to clear away some memories.

"Nevermind," she amended a few minutes later, closing the photo album in her hands with a gentle snap. "The past is the past. What is important is that Kira is now our daughter, and I love her all the same."

The woman staring out the window beside him now, watching the all-too familiar scenery pass by is different. She's now older, wiser, and sadder. Her eyes are deeper, her smile is smaller, and her voice is quieter. Her face is deprived of any of her customary make-up and her hands are clenched tightly in her lap as they turn the corner to the parking lot of the sprawling campus of the hospital, the world outside quiet in the lazy afternoon.

But he loves her still, and as he reaches over to put his hand over hers in reassurance, the smile she sends back at him is as grateful as ever.

He'll wait with her, just to see her light up as she did all those years ago.

-~o~-

Elizabeth Lanning has always known that this would happen.

She was a smart woman. She was a smart woman the moment she stepped into the Orphanage with her first husband, followed the caretaker to her office, and for the briefest moment, passed the dancing child outside of the windows.

She was a smarter woman when she told the caretaker that she wanted to adopt that little girl, the one with the auburn hair and grey eyes and such similar in appearance to her that it made her shudder at the thought, because she was exactly what she imagined her lost baby girl to look like, had she grown up to be of her age.

And Elizabeth was the smartest woman when one night, as she watched her new four-year-old daughter acquaintance herself with her husband, the world froze in shades of black and white and a boy was smiling at her, clothes dark and face pale as he held out a hand to her in greeting.

"My name is Eriol," his lips had said, curled in a smile as he patiently waited for her to recover her wits. "This is about your new daughter."

And even now, the memory of him still sends chills up her spine.

Her son's footsteps follow her in the all too empty corridors of the hospital ward, her husband's hand warm on her shoulder as they follow the familiar way to where her daughter resides. They have their own ID card now and Carl swipes it through the machine at the door, the quiet beep disrupting the silence of the building and they step through to where Kira Lanning lies.

She's grown older over the years, Elizabeth thinks as she caresses the sleeping girl's face with one gentle hand. She's gained height, and her features have sharpened into ones belonging to that of a seventeen year old. Her face is pale, even whiter under the glare of the hospital lights, her eyes hidden beneath thin eyelids. They flicker from time to time, her eyelashes casting little half-moon shadows on her cheekbones, her mouth parted as her chest moves up and down as she breathes.

The doctors are clueless as to what is happening to her.

"It's nothing that we have seen before," Dr. Randall, the man in charge of their case, had admitted upon their first meeting. He was an aging man, dressed in the customary white lab coat and black slacks. He held a clipboard in one hand as he ran his other through his graying hair. "It's almost like it's out of a sci-fi movie – everything about her is alright, and the most basic explanation is that she's asleep, but we just can't seem to have her wake up."

James, seven years old at the time and curious about his older sister's condition, had paled. "Is she dead?" He squeaked, his hands searching for his father's as he clutched onto them as if they were a precious lifeline.

Dr. Randall shook his head, watching the small boy with pitying eyes. "No. In fact, it's almost as if she is experiencing another world while she sleeps – our monitors can pick up spikes in her brain activity, as a person's would normally act when they are experiencing a heavy emotion. In fact, it's as if she's not even asleep!" He had sighed in frustration, and that was the end of that topic.

Elizabeth's hand pauses over her daughter's mouth, almost as if to reassure herself that her daughter is still breathing. The burst of warm air hits her palm and her eyes soften, brushing a stray lock of hair away from Kira's tranquil face, before she sits down on the bedside chair and grasps one motionless hand in hers.

Elizabeth Lanning has always been a smart woman. She knows, she just _knows_, that her little Kira – the one that looks so much like what her real daughter would look like that there is just no logical explanation except _Eriol _– is alive, somewhere. She can't reach her, or hear her or touch her, but she can hope that one day, she will open her eyes and wake up.

She just prays that wherever she is, her daughter is safe.

-~o~-

"You've got to be freaking kidding me."

No one replies to my words as we all gaze in awe at the towering, half-crumbling building standing before us. The pillars standing at what was supposed to be the courtyard are all but gone, curling green vines shaping themselves across the remaining surfaces left. A creek gurgles closer to the large building, bringing a sense of false serenity to the place.

"You sure this is supposed to be a tomb?" Selphie echoes my thoughts as she takes in the sight before us. "And not a castle or something?"

Two identical, high-pitched screams break the deceitful silence as two girls – Galbadian Garden's cadets by their uniforms – break through the darkness of the entrance, covered in several bruises and bleeding cuts. They hurl past us, almost as if we're not even there – thought one would have ran straight into Irvine (not that he would have minded) had he not moved out of the way, their frightened murmurs catching our attention.

_"Float… how could we have forgotten Float!"_

We watch as they disappear into the distance before turning to look at each other in uncertainty.

"…You sure we still have to do this?" Irvine finally asks, sending a nervous glance at the Tomb of The Unknown King over his shoulder. Rinoa, Selphie, Zell and I mirror his look and I can feel myself beginning to slowly edge away from the dirt path and back to where our car is safely parked.

"There's no other way to get to Caraway," Quistis says at last, her posture tense and, by what I can see, not wanting to go in either. Squall seems to be the only one still determined, and he shows this to us by turning on his heels and striding in confidence towards the tomb.

God, just because _he _doesn't mind getting totalled by whatever's in there, doesn't mean that _we _don't either.

"Oh great," I mutter under my breath, mirroring Zell's groan as we get no choice but to follow our idiotic leader, before running to catch up to said idiot.

…I hope he trips over a rock, or something, and falls right into the water, just because trying to look cool is not what Squall should be trying to do right now.

(Not that I think he is, 'cause it's _Squall _and all, but he's certainly putting up the image of doing so when he unsheathes his gunblade and swings it over one shoulder.)

We're going to die, aren't we?

_Stop being so pessimistic, _Flym advices in my head, having allowed me to talk to her again in the car on the way here. I grimace in answer as we walk over ancient stone blocks that serve as the bridge over the water, the entrance of the tomb looming ahead of us. It's a classic horror-movie setup – the sun slowly beginning to set in the sky, the chirp of insects in the wilderness, the gurgle of water beneath our feet…

Selphie's eyes pop open as we step in. "Wow, this place sure is big…"

Our favorite yellow-clad brunette is right on the dot. The ceiling rises up high above us, beams of light shooting down to illuminate the way through cracks worn out over time. Irvine curses loudly behind me as he steps into one of monster droppings scattered throughout the corridors, muttering profanities under his breath as move farther in, our eyes trailing over the various scriptures carved onto the gray stone of the walls. Twin rivers trickle down beneath them, the only sound other than our footsteps in this grand place.

"This is like a palace," Rinoa observes, stopping for a moment to peer closer at the words scribbled under several drawings. "It's amazing."

"You haven't been here before?" I ask, somewhat surprised at her amazement. With her living just about an hour's drive away from this, I would have figured that she would have let her curiosity get the best of her at least once.

"Never," she admits, smiling sheepishly. "Honestly, no one really bothers to stop by here. There are always stories surrounding this place, so no one really wants to bother with it."

My ears perk up at this. "Stories? What kind?"

"The Tomb of The Unknown King is known for the guardians that are rumoured to guard it," Quistis pipes in, having been listening back with one ear. She falls into step beside us, going into her Instructor mode. "The name of the King that lies here has been lost over time, but it is believed that his two most loyal men were buried along with him, and overtime, have turned into Guardian Forces that protect this tomb from being pillaged by tomb raiders."

Rinoa nods in agreement to Quistis's words. We've been walking for about ten minutes now and the hallway is steadily beginning to curve leftwards; other than us, we haven't seen any signs of life yet.

"The story going around Deiling City is that if you step in this place with bad intentions, and find your way to the room where the king is located, the Guardians will rise up and chase you out – and if you fight back, well…"

I stare back at Irvine, aghast at his words. Rinoa's face mirrors my own while Quistis just raises one wry eyebrow. "I sincerely doubt that," she points out, furrowing her brow. "There is no concrete proof that anything of that sort should happen – the only evidence we have is of the rumours people like to pass on around the city."

"Still…" Selphie's voice wavers a bit from where she's walking beside the grinning cowboy, her nunchuks clutched tightly in her hands. "I don't think I want to run into any guardians any time soon."

"Yo! What's the hold up there?"

With a start I realize that our own little group has fallen behind Squall and Zell; the two are waiting in the intersection that is slowly coming into view, the latter waving his hand at us to hurry up.

"I think we found it," Zell says once we reach them, stepping back several paces so we can catch a glimpse of a broken sword lying on the ground. Half of the blade is gone, almost as if it was smashed by something to several pieces….something like, say, a flail?

_Ooh boy, _Flym comments in my mind, gulping as a memory of the Brothers plays through my head.

_Ooh boy indeed, _Diablo agrees, and I cringe.

"Hey, guys…" Several heads turn to face me as I walk forward to examine the weapon closer. "I don't think a normal monsters could have done that…."

Squall frowns as he crouches over the broken weapon, turning it over for any sign of the student ID we have to find. "I agree with Kira," he says at last, grimacing as he stands back up and dusts his hands off on his jacket. "The sword is fairly new, so there is no chance of it being here for longer than a week."

Rinoa and Selphie pale at his words. "You don't think…" Selphie's words get cut off as a sudden roar goes off through the tomb, startling us all out of our wits. I latch onto Squall's arm as a tremor passes through the centuries old building, several stone blocks overhead crumbling as they fall apart to the ground.

"Duck for cover!" Zell yells amidst our screaming (Me, Selphie, and Rinoa) and before I know it, Squall is pushing me out of the way so we're rolling on to our backs as the debris settle around us, the small earthquake having loosened them enough to come tumbling down towards us. He and I lie on the stone ground for a few moments, gasping for breath and coughing out the dust floating around us, before Squall stands back up. A sudden curse from him and I glance up from where I'm staring at the ground, still hacking away, and my eyes widen.

"No freaking way," I groan, taking in the several large stone blocks blocking our vision from glimpsing any of our other companions.

"Is everyone okay?" Quistis's voice floats over from the mess, and I stand up to examine our escape route alongside with Squall.

"Damn it!" Irvine vocalizes after a few seconds, a complete different direction from where Quistis's voice had come. "Me and Rinoa are trapped!"

"Same with us!" Selphie calls back and I let out several violent curses under my breath.

"What do we now, Mr. Leader?" I say, unable to fully block out the sarcasm from coming into my voice as I turn to Squall. Said brunette grimaces in thought for a moment before brining one hand to rub at his forehead in frustration.

"Zell, Selphie, Quistis," he calls after a few silent moments, raising his voice to be heard over the stone, even though the room is suddenly silent. "You too, Irvine, Rinoa. Try to find a way out of here – the map shows the pathways cross at one point or the other. There is supposed to be a well deep inside here; follow the sound of the water until you find it. Understood?"

Half-hearted voices belonging to our party reply back before the echoes of their footsteps fade away, and it's only me and Squall left in the now-ruined room. We stand in awkward silence for a few minutes before the brunette turns on his heel all of a sudden and begins heading down the passageway.

_Of all the people in the world, it has to be him. _Flym laughs at my predicament as I scowl at Squall's back before falling into step beside him.

"So…" I begin after a few minutes of walking, uncomfortable with the silence between us. "Do you actually have any idea where we're going?"

My reply is a cold glare and I sigh. "Thought so. So…" I search around in my head for a topic to touch up on. "How's life?"

Squall sends me a somewhat incredulous glance and I shrug, glad to have gotten at least a small reaction out of him. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Everything's going by so fast, you know? I mean, there was the SeeD exam, and then we actually _became _SeeDs, and then Cid sends me off to Galbadia, of all places, and then you guys are on TV in the middle of lunch and then we all have to assassinate the Sorceress…" I sigh again, blowing my bangs out of my eyes.

"Life sucks."

He gives a grunt in answer and I take it as him agreeing. "You know," I start off again, sending him a wayward glance out of the corners of my eyes, "You and I never really got to know each other."

"And I'm not interested in doing so," Squall finally replies, speeding up somewhat to walk ahead of me and I scowl at him.

"You know, just because Seifer and I are friends you don't have to be such a jackass about it!" I call ahead to him, running up to walk beside him again. "I mean," I continue, glaring at the darkness in front of us. "Just because you and him have some stupid childhood rivalry, it doesn't mean that you have to bring me into it too!"

"Seifer and I do not have a childhood rivalry," Squall cuts off my ranting, his voice cold and piercing through the musty air. "And what you think is honestly none of my concern."

Flym and Diablo are silent in my head as they watch this exchange between us; I can feel my hands beginning to twitch to where my pistols are located.

"You have problems," I finally spit out, glaring at his back from narrowed slits. When he ignores me and continues walking, I feel something inside of me snap. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, dammit—!"

"Excuse me?"

Both of us freeze at the sudden voice; I have my hand clutching the sleeve of his leather jacket and Squall is half-turned, his face twisted into a scowl, his eyes bright in annoyance.

The owner of the voice steps out into the light pouring down in beams overhead, examining us curiously with her head tilted to the side slightly in an oddly familiar motion.

"I couldn't help but overhear voices," the young woman explains, tucking a lock of black hair behind one ear in embarrassment. Her vivid green eyes are watching us and for some reason, she's reminding me of a cat watching a canary. "This is a dangerous place, and well," she trails off, her fingers now playing with the edges of her jacket, unwilling to stay in one place too long. "Are you, by chance, looking for the Guardians that are said to guard this place?"

Squall frowns, tearing himself away from my grip. I'm still frozen stiff, watching the strange woman as my heart beats a mile a minute. "I don't see how any of that concerns you," he says, his voice emotionless with a hint of a warning beneath it. The woman stares at him for a moment, startled at his tone, before laughing to herself.

"Oh, forgive me, I guess that is a bit of a strange question to ask." She offers us a smile, coming closer a few steps. Idly, I notice the scabbard of a blade flash at her thigh, somewhat hidden by the large jacket she has thrown over her petite body. "I was in the area, and I couldn't help but come to explore this place. Many people have told me of the powerful creatures that are said to guard it, and well, who wouldn't want to see that?"

She's still smiling, almost as if it is on automatic, and I can't help but wonder as to why she is so insistent on this. A part of my brain – the one I believe is called 'common sense' – tells me that she's smart enough to recognize a dangerous place when she sees one, but my head is telling me otherwise.

"I was hoping, if you wouldn't mind, if I could join you for the time being?" Squall is as stoic as ever as she says this, but I can see the way his stance tenses at her proposal. "If these Guardians are as tough as people believe them to be, then I believe it isn't in the best option for either one of us to travel alone here. Don't you think?"

"We should let her come with us." To my immense surprise, I'm the one speaking. "We'll run into those beasts at one point or the other. And besides, she's got a point. It's dangerous to be alone here."

Squall sends me and incredulous stare before sighing in defeat. "Fine," he growls, looking us both over and taking in the detail of the mystery girl's weapon. "As long as you can fight and don't hold us back, do as you will."

Said girl's face breaks into a large smile and she makes a hasty half-bow, her movements almost jerky as she does so. "Thank you!" She replies, her face still in the ever-present smile as she comes to stand beside me. We take off at a fast pace, the sound of water coming off from somewhere deep within.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself." Her hand reaches out to shake mine in the darkness, her eyes bearing into mine as she does so, green and grey mixing and almost glowing in the dark. "I'm Annabella. It's a pleasure to meet you."

-~o~-

**Things edited: **typos?


	14. Succession of Witches

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Edited 06/07/10**

_Chapter XIII  
__**Succession of Witches**_

" _wake up from your sleep, children,_

the childhood years are gone. "

"So you guys are SeeD, right?"

Annabella's voice echoes around us as we continue our trip down to the center of the Tomb, our only guidance being the tell-tale trickle of water and flickering beams of light from the cracks in the ceiling overhead of us. Squall walks slightly ahead of us, his posture erect as he watches the darkness for any movement of lurking fiends.

Annabella's voice is young and curious. It breaks the stale air of the stone structure, floating between us for a few moments as her eyes focus themselves onto me. I'm walking beside her, our legs moving step-by-step, in sync, tapping out a rhythm against the age-old pathways.

I examine her back, my interest vying with hers, green and grey together. "How did you know?" Squall is wondering this too, I bet. There are no signs of our positions on our clothes – SeeDs work in secret, under cover, to complete their mission, their training intent in securing the knowledge of working in the shadows into their minds.

Annabella laughs, somewhat embarrassed, perhaps at seeing our suspicion of her return – not that it ever went away, if Squall's lack of communication is anything to go by. "Well, for one, Galbadia Garden is near by here, just over the plains to the east. It's not unusual for students to be sent here for their testing. In fact," her eyes sharpen, and her brows furrow in a small frown. "Most students are sent here to be tested for their abilities and worth to the military. I'm surprised you didn't know that. You must be from either Trabia, or Balamb." A beat of silence passes between the three of us, Squall remaining stoic to the conversation taking place and myself not knowing how to respond.

Annabella continues, after neither of us has spoken. "Trabia has no business here whatsoever, I'd guess. It gets most of its resources from Balamb." Her face eases back into her smile, this time a fraction of satisfaction appearing at the edges of her lips at having figured out our situation. "You're from Balamb, then, I suppose?"

Her quick observation makes me uncomfortable and I shift my shoulders as we walk in an attempt to relax the muscles tensing in my back. "That's correct." Squall's eyes send me a slight glare as I catch sight of his face as we turn a corner. In a flash he has his back to us again and I fight back the urge to grind my teeth together.

_You shouldn't have told her that, _Flym says, agreeing with Squall's silent admonition, while Diablos' amusement trickles through our link into my brain. Annoyance flashes through my mind and I grimace, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on.

_What else was I supposed to say? _I ask, and Flym's refusal to answer tells me she knows there's nothing else I could have done. _She figured it out all by herself. Not my fault she's too damn smart for her own good. _Diablos snorts in response.

"Are you here for the Sorceress Parade?" Annabella's questions are all directed to me now, having decided apparently that Squall's grunts were all the answers she was going to get. Smart girl. "I've seen people arriving from all over the place to witness the first unity between the country and the Sorceress in a very long time. It's been several centuries since the last signing took the place."

"I never knew that," I reply, surprised that the fact did not stick in my mind, due to my fascination with the history of this world.

_You don't know a lot of things, _Flym chimes in, still somewhat irritated by my slippage of SeeD. Her words go on ignored.

Annabella nods, her fingers playing with the edges of her bulky jacket. Her figure fades into the shadows from time to time, grey jacket blending with the black leggings she has underneath. A flash of a golden chain attached to the breast pocket of her jacket catches my attention as we pass by a spot of sunshine filtering in, and I frown.

"You are a part of the military?" I ask, somewhat surprised that someone as young looking as her would be admitted in. Her face turns to look at me, amused green eyes boring into mine. A lock of her dark hair catches in the sun as she stops under a patch of light to stare at me, and for a moment her appearance turns ghostly; almost ethereal. A chill works itself up my spine at the sight.

"Do I really look that young?" The moment is broken as she speaks, laughing in amazement. She takes a step away from the light and I release a breath of relief I hadn't known I was holding.

"Sorry," I apologize, sheepish at my assumption. Annabella shakes her head as we begin walking again, falling into step beside each other.

"It's alright," she says, still smiling. "You're not the only one to ask me that. But to answer you, yes, I am."

Our talk catches Squall's attention at last. "What is the Galbadian Military doing here?" He questions, his voice cutting through the distance between us and him. Annabella looks startled at his talking to her, but shakes it off in a second.

"As I mentioned earlier, the Sorceress Parade is a great event that hasn't happened in many years. The city counsel can think of quite a few dangers that this may put the Sorceress herself in." She pauses, gauging our reactions to her words. Squall merely stays silent while I nod at her to continue. "The unity between the people and the Sorceresses has been a very fragile thing for as long as anyone can remember. The people fear the magic running through the Sorceress' veins; it is a natural thing to fear something greater than you, but unfortunately, this drive to defeat it has caused many commotions to happen in the past, where the Sorceress has no choice but to retaliate."

A beat of silence passes after her words. "You seem to know a lot about this," Squall finally says, glancing over his shoulder to look back at us as we stop at an intersection. Annabella offers him a wry smile.

"It is my duty to know," she says.

My skin crawls at her words. "Why?" I ask, the many possibilities of her words running through my mind. Annabella's attention switches away from Squall and refocuses itself on me, her face contemplating for a few moments. The sound of water rushing in the distance reaches our ears, and Annabella's face breaks into a small smile.

"It's my duty right now to protect her, as well as President Deling," she explains, her arms swinging by her sides as she begins to walk in the direction of the Tomb's center once again. "While it's true that many of us in the military are prone to following orders without a thought in mind, I like to know about the people my orders are about."

"I thought you were here to investigate the rumours of the Guardians of the Tomb." She nods once at my words, still smiling, though now slightly uncomfortable.

"That too. I've been assigned to search the Tomb for anything that may endanger the Parade later tonight – and, well," she trails off, averting her eyes guiltily. "I've wanted to explore this place and the myths for quite some time, but lately it's been hard to get leave of the military for the days necessary to satisfy my curiosity." She laughs in embarrassment, grasping her hands in front of her as she does so.

The tension between us caused by her earlier words eases down a notch. "I'm surprised that they would send only you to investigate," I offer after a moment. "You must be very strong, for them to trust you with something like this."

Annabella's eyes shine with a hint of pride and she grins. "One of the very best." Flym mutters something unintelligible to Diablos in my head at her words and the demon Guardian Force snickers back in reply.

Squall examines Annabella for another minute before setting off with a grunt. The dark haired girl's eyes follow him as he walks past her without a second glance, before sighing and turning towards me with a humouring smirk. "After you, Miss SeeD."

Flym's voice hums in my head as I turn into the next corridor, Annabella's footsteps following mine a second later.

_Never turn your back on the enemy._

The world goes black.

~o~

"_KIRA! Focus on the ball!"_

A sharp pain hits me on the side of my head and I can feel myself toppling over to my side, a hiss of pain escaping my lips as my body hits the cool surface of polished wood. A whistle pierces through the air and I curse as the spot where the object hit begins to throb, bringing one hand up to clutch at it.

"Man, I told you to watch out!"

I glance up at the unfamiliar voice, still shaken as the owner of it – a girl, dressed in red shorts and a white t-shirt – offers me a hand up from the floor. She frowns and examines me curiously when I stay sitting on the floor, her blue eyes boring into mine in worry.

"Kira? You okay?"

A strange feeling passes through my body at her words. "How do you know my name?"

A hint of confusion flashes over her round face before it's replaced with panic. "COACH!" She hollers out and I wince at the pitch her voice manages to reach. Loud Girl begins waving her arms above her head in a way that makes me think of Selphie, intent on flagging down whoever she is looking for. "I think Kira got amnesia!"

I blink at her in confusion as more people begin to gather around us, forming a small circle. "She's not bleeding," someone says, leaning closer to me to inspect my head. I flinch away from the girl's searching hands and she pulls a face at me, scowling when I stare blankly at her. "Jeez, Kira, that ball didn't even hit you that hard."

The girls around us titter in both worry and laughter, wearing matching sets of red and white of what I realize must be uniforms. A volleyball net stands off farther behind them, cutting the gym floor in half, rows of bleachers pushed up against the white walls of the large room. A set of doors is beside them, small mirrors showing what must be…hallways?

A shiver begins to run up my body as I take in the unfamiliar scene of my surroundings. The gym is almost…_Earth-like._

The circle breaks all of a sudden as a tall, lean woman strides between them and casts a critical eye over my form. I realize that I'm still sitting on the floor and push myself up, swaying a bit for balance as my head throbs even more. The dizziness passes after a few moments and I glance down at myself, struggling to keep myself calm as I take in the identical shorts and t-shirt on my body. My heart sinks when my eyes run over my waist quickly, and sure enough, my pistols are missing from their usual places.

In fact, ALL my stuff is missing.

"She looks fine enough to me, Kelsey." The woman with the whistle around her neck says after a moment of observing me, and I glance up at her, still panicking, causing her to raise one eyebrow.

"But she doesn't even know who I am, Coach!" Loud Girl – or Kelsey, as the other woman calls her – insists, her voice still rising in pitch, nearing panic. "Just ask her who we are!"

The circle of girls falls quiet at her words, all watching the three of us. I catch the girl who tried to touch me earlier roll her eyes. "She's probably playing around. God, Kelsey, stop being so over-dramatic." A few girls beside her snicker at the words, hiding them with a few fake coughs.

Kelsey sends the girl the harshest glare her short frame can muster – second by second, I can see more and more of Selphie in her. "You just shut your mouth, Kayla." She snaps, her voice loud as she scowls in the direction of the taller girl. Kayla rolls her eyes again but stays where she is, and I assume the only reason she is here is her curiosity.

"Both of you girls just be quiet," the woman – obviously a teacher, and apparently the coach of this gym class or whatever – orders, her eyes still focused on my face. "How are you feeling, Kira?"

_That's a trick question, _I want to say, trying in vain to keep my shivers from showing. _Would I get in trouble if I say you should start making some sense before I take out a gun and shoot you all?_

"Who are you?" I blurt out instead, beginning to back away on instinct. The faces of the girls around me begin to blur and the tell-tale feeling of panic start creeping over my body. I latch onto the girl's – Kelsey, whatever her name is – arm on impulse to keep myself from kneeling over again, but to my shock, the feeling of her skin under my fingers begins to burn. I snatch my arm away quickly and gaze at it, stupefied, searching for the burns that aren't there.

"Oh god," Kelsey-Selphie whispers, her eyes wide. "Coach Cameron, I think she's going into shock!"

The woman's eyes flicker to the brunette in annoyance. "Kelsey, stop panicking. Kira, do you want to go see the nurse to get an icepack for that bruise?"

I stare at her for a few moments – I had almost forgotten about the ball hitting me, if only the pain had gone away. The absence of my stuff, clothes, and Squall and Annabella circles my head like a mantra, and I manage to nod. "I'd like that."

My walking isn't as steady as I'd like it to be as Kelsey grabs me by my arm and begins to drag me out of the gym, and against my better judgement, I lean into her to keep myself from stumbling. We push past the swinging doors and out to the hallways, which are lined with blue metallic lockers and keep heading down the hall in silence.

_Flym? _I try calling out, searching deep inside myself for our link, after a few minutes. _Are you there? _

As I expected, no answer comes and my heart sinks even lower, the absence of my one true companion making my stomach churn with worry. _Maybe she's just sleeping, _I try to tell myself, fighting to keep my feelings from rising. _Or maybe she's with Eriol._

"Hey, Kira…"

The sound of the girl's voice snaps me out of the turn my thoughts are making and I glance down at her, her brunette head only reaching my hairline, and feel a pang of the reminder of Selphie. I haven't seen her for only about an hour, and I am already beginning to miss her presence.

_I don't think she's here._

I clamp the thought down, forcing it below the layers of my consciousness, trying hard in vain to pretend this is not real.

"Do you really not know who I am?" Loud Girl asks, her eyes looking into mine. Her voice is smaller than it was in the gym, hurt, and in another life I think we would have been friends.

_Who are you? _I want to ask. _Where are we? Why am I here? Where's Squall and Annabella? Where are Flym and Diablos? _

…_Why am I back on Earth? Am I…_

_Home?_

My silence is all the answer that she needs, and Kelsey sighs before mustering up a smile again. "Oh well. I'm sure you'll be fine in no time at all. I mean, people can't really get permanent amnesia from being hit in the head with a volleyball, right?"

Her words strike a chord somewhere in me and I wince guiltily. "Sorry." We turn a corner and emerge into a large area; Kelsey mutters _the Commons _under her breath as she takes note of my confused gaze. Skylights fall overhead, situated on a high ceiling, and several students sit in clusters at the lunch tables in the center of the room. A clock is hung up at the far wall underneath several banners advertising plays, fundraisers, dances and clubs; two sets of stairs curve to the second floor, muted laughter coming off from above.

My last suspicions are confirmed.

I'm in a normal _Earth _high school.

Kelsey shakes her head as we walk past several doors marked "Counselling." "It's fine. I mean, I know you like to space out a lot, but it was all Kayla's fault for aiming the ball at you. I mean, just because Luke asked you to the dance and not her…" She snickers, and I assume she's remembering the event happening. "I don't think she'll be forgiving you for a long time."

I grimace. "Great. High school drama. Just what I need." The most drama I had at Garden were the rumours of Seifer and I getting together, which were settled quickly by a few threats, guns and swords. "You don't suppose what's-her-face will back off if I stick a gun down her throat, do you?"

Kelsey freezes in her steps and sends me a slightly alarmed look. "What?"

I blink, having realized that I had spoken my thoughts out loud. "…Nothing. Nevermind."

The girl shakes her head and begins walking again. "For a moment there, I thought you said you wanted to stick a gun down Kayla's throat. I know you don't like her at all, but you being violent is not something I thought I'd ever see." She giggles at the thought as we stop by one of the glass doors, this one labelled "Nurse" in large block letters. Her eyes seem lighter as she continues teasing. "You should get amnesia more often."

I smile back uncomfortably, shifting in my spot, feeling naked without the weight of my pistols pressing down against my thighs. "Uhm."

Kelsey's eyes light up, as if she just remembered something. "Oh! Right! Do you want me to go in with you, or are you going to be okay?"

Her presence reminds me too much of Selphie's, and the constant companionship of someone unfamiliar to me – who seems certain that she knows me – has become too awkward for me to be with. I shake my head in answer to her question. "No, I'll be fine. Thank you though."

She nods, her eyes straying across my face, almost as if memorizing how I look before refocusing them on mine. "Get better, okay?" She says, smiling. "It would suck if you weren't able to come to the Spring Dance that you helped me organize. I know how much you were looking forward to it."

I stay silent at her words, unsure of what to say, and tense as Kelsey suddenly leans forward to give me a small hug. "You better be okay, right…Kira?" The way she says my name, almost detached from the rest of her sentence like she's not sure whether it belongs there or not, sends tingles down my spine. With one last smile, she moves away and starts heading back the way we came.

I'm left standing in front of the nurse's office, feeling utterly and completely alone. The sensation of loneliness awakens feelings that I've strived hard to forget and I shake them away, pressing against the nurse's door.

"We've been expecting you."

I start at the young woman's voice, backing up against the door as it shuts behind me, my suspicions rekindled. The office woman smiles at me, her eyes alight in curiosity at my actions, and nods. "That's right. Coach Cameron has called us, saying that you'd be dropping by."

My shoulders relax. "Oh. I see. Uhm…" The woman chuckles, her fingers beginning to type away at the keyboard in front of her as her attention refocuses on the flat screen. _This must be a very prestigious school, _I think. _Something that my parents would have sent me to._

"Dr. Clement is waiting for you, Kira." She looks up when I make no move to go, and winks. "Don't be so afraid now."

I nod, slowly, and begin walking towards the door behind the desk where the woman is sitting. "…Thanks." As I pass by her, she sends me one last smile, her eyes watching my every move. I resist the urge to shudder; this is beginning to give me the creeps.

A voice calls out for me to enter when I knock on the door of Dr. Celement's office. I do so and flinch as the faint smell of medicine burns at my nose, grimacing at the familiar likeness to Dr. Kadowaki's office – the room is just as small as her main office, a polished white desk standing at one corner and a bed at another. The woman who I assume is Dr. Clement is younger than Dr. Kadowaki is, with a neat brunette ponytail at the base of her neck and rectangular glasses.

"Kira, right?" She asks warmly, standing up from behind her desk to shake my hand. "Coach Cameron tells me you got hit with a rogue volleyball."

Her light, teasing tone reminds me of Flym a bit. It makes my head hurt. "Yes m'am."

I let her feel around my head about against my will, fighting the urge to dodge away from her touch. She's done after a few moments, and steps back to examine me. "It doesn't seem like you got hit too hard," she says, frowning and pushing up her glasses up her nose as she returns to her desk. "It might have caused slight shock, but it doesn't appear to be anything too serious."

Her words catch me off-guard. "Coach Cameron didn't say anything else?"

The nurse pauses in her shuffling of paper to look back up at me in surprise. "Was she supposed to?"

"No…she wasn't. Nevermind. Sorry."

Dr. Clement watches me for another minute before shrugging and reaching up to fix her glasses again. "Well then, my suggestion to you is just to get some rest. The bruise will be there for a while, but," she offers a sympathetic smile to me as she says this, "All of us must have our battle wounds, don't you think?"

The bump forming on my head throbs almost as if in response to her words. I wince. "Right."

The woman glances at the clock hung up on her wall, almost as if remembering something. "Volleyball practice is almost over," she says to me. "I don't think your Coach would mind if you left now; I'm sure she'll understand."

I nod, gratified at being a chance to leave the school. "Okay. Thank you." She dismisses me with a wave of her hand and another smile, her attention already refocused on her papers.

I leave the nurse's office with another creepy smile from the woman behind the desk – honestly, when have people smiled at me this much before? – and pause outside the door. The clock on the wall indicates it is past four in the afternoon and my stomach turns as another wave of dread begins to wash over me.

"Where am I supposed to go now?"

I spy the hallway I was in earlier to the right, and another identical one spawns over at my left. There seems to be no doors other than ones leading to yet another gym at the far wall of the Commons, so with a sight I start off to my left. After a few moments of walking the doors to outside appear on my left and I turn through them, grimacing as the cold chill of the air hits me. Clumps of snow lie on the ground of the parking lot before me, not yet melted, and I curse myself for having forgotten that I'm still in my gym uniform.

There seems to be no one but myself outside – shuddering in the brittle air of winter, I start off in the direction of the crosswalk I can see in the distance. There are no cars passing by in the roads and the houses of the neighbourhood nearby stay silent, casting an odd, quiet, and in another scenario maybe peaceful atmosphere. I take no more than ten steps in this direction when a loud honk pierces the air from behind me.

I freeze and turn to watch as a silver car pulls up on the curb beside me. The urge to run beats away inside of me but I force myself to stand still, curious as to where all of this is leading. I take in my surroundings automatically, as I had been taught; as far as I can see, I am the only person in the parking lot save for a few empty cars. If I scream loud enough, will the people inside of the school be able to hear me?

The car finally stops and the window rolls down inch by inch. To my surprise, an aging man looks at me from inside with a patronizing look. "Miss Lanning," he speaks, shaking his head at me. "You know your mother does not appreciate you missing your practices."

I stare at him, agape, in surprise. "…What?"

His lips turn into a frown as he takes in my appearance. "It is a ridiculous idea to go outside wearing your uniform, as well." He peers closer at me, his eyes showing concern. "Are you alright, Miss Lanning? You look slightly pale."

"What are you doing here?" I blurt out, wary. The man does not look like he would be dangerous, but nevertheless, him mentioning my mother – of all people – makes my blood turn cold.

The man's frown deepens. "I'm here to pick you up, of course. Is something the matter, Miss Lanning?" When I don't answer, he reaches for one of his pockets and pulls out a cell phone. "I could call your mother if something is wrong, Miss."

I start shaking my head as soon as he mentions her. "No, no, that's fine, I'm okay." Pausing with hesitation, I decide to take a chance; either this was going to be real, or this was nothing but a far-fetched dream. "Could you take me home though, please?"

"What about your change of clothes, Miss?"

I shake my head again, already reaching for the door handle of the backseat. "No, that's fine. I'll just get them…tomorrow."

He nods and starts the car while I huddle deeper into the seats, seeking out warmth while staring out the window. The scenery we pass outside is somewhat familiar to me, hazy, floating at the edges of my mind, just out of reach. We pass by houses and stores and streets I remember walking by but don't remember the names of – how could I expect to, after not being here for so many years?

The fifteen minute drives passes in silence. At last, we turn down a street that is very familiar to me – my heart speeds up as my old house comes into view, white washed with grand windows and hedges cut just the way I remember them to be. The scene is almost like déjà vu – I would come home like this every day, only on foot, coming from the school situated just five minutes west of the neighbourhood.

"Is my mother home?" I manage to ask through the lump forming itself in my throat. My driver shakes his head.

"Neither is your father, Miss. I believe they will be at the fundraiser dinner until late tonight." He catches my eyes in the mirror and I shy away from his gaze, afraid that he will see the tears forming. "Are you certain that everything is fine, Miss Lanning?"

I shake my head quickly in answer, reaching for the door as we stop in front of the entrance. "Everything is fine, thank you." I escape the confines of the car before he can say anything else and realize that I don't even know his name.

_Oh great Hyne, _I want to say to Flym, imagining that she's here with me. _What is this place?_

_It's your own personal Hell, _a voice that sounds suspiciously a lot like me whispers back in answer and I rush at the tall doors of my house, my fingers shaking as I grasp at the familiar wood. They fall open before my fingers and I realize that James must be home – _oh, James, James…_ - and I step into the familiar foyer of the house I spent my whole childhood in.

A wave of nostalgia crashes over me. I had imagined what my coming home would be like so many times – in my sleep, in my daydreams, alone and together with someone. I just stand there, in the airy foyer for a few long minutes, hardly daring to believe that I am here.

_But what about Flym? _My mind whispers back to me, voicing my deepest fears. _What of Squall, and Selphie, and everyone else? What of Seifer?_

My heart constricts. _Seifer. _He hadn't crossed my mind once during all of this – in fact, no one I had grown up around with had in the entire time I had been here.

A banging from the direction of the kitchen interrupts my musings and with a start, I stare in its direction before setting off down the hallway. Picture frames line the walls as they always have before I left, showing things I remember and things I don't – me at fifteen posing in a formal dress, an older James than I remember standing by a piano, my parents, James and I against a blue background smiling into the camera. A strange photograph stands out from the rest and I pause to look at it – it must have been taken when I wasn't looking; I'm sitting on the couch, with my back to the photographer, only my head and shoulders poking out overtop of it, a blurry controller in one hand and my Playstation set up on the floor between me and the TV of the living room.

A sudden chill in the air makes me shudder as I peer closer at what it is that I am playing – the camera had clicked just as the brief picture of Seifer charging down at Squall with a satisfied sneer on his face from the very beginning of the game played. I stare at the picture for another minute, willing the Seifer on the screen to move just as I had seen him do in real life, and the lonely feeling in my gut intensifies.

More banging from the kitchen snaps me out of me revere yet again and I shake off the cold from my body. My confidence wavers once I reach the doorway leading off to the right and I just stand there for a few seconds, listening to whoever it is moving inside of the room. With a deep breath, I take a step forward and face the kitchen.

A brunette boy is sitting on the kitchen counter, flipping a magazine in one hand while chewing on a sandwich with the other. He glances up at me once I enter, blue eyes peering curiously at me under a flock of brown hair. He blinks a few times before offering me a small smirk.

"Skipping practice again?" He says, the edges of his lips tugging upwards in amusement. "You know Mom doesn't like that, Kira."

A rush of air escapes me and I sag against the doorway, my eyes never straying from my little brother's face. "James," I breathe out, wondering whether or not this is real.

He tilts his head curiously at his name. "Yeah?" A frown mars his face when I continue to stare at him silently. "Hey, you okay, sis? You look kind of…sick."

"It's nothing," I reply back after another moment, regaining my composure and straightening up. I try to manage a small smile, my eyes drinking in his every feature. "I'm just…glad to be home."

James' face breaks into a large grin and he nods. "Yeah, sis. I'm glad you're _home too._"

The world freezes.

"Wouldn't this be nice?"

I whirl around in place as the familiar voice echoes in the kitchen, bouncing off the walls, everywhere and nowhere at once. The words continue to echo around me until they fade away into the air and a figure forms beside my brother, one arm entwined around his shoulders. The girl turns her head from where she's resting her chin on his head and I want to scream,

_GET AWAY FROM HIM!_

The mirror-twin girl from my dream at Galbadia smiles blankly, almost as if she's reading my mind. I reach for my guns at my hip but _no _they're not there anymore and _that girl has my brother!_

"Wouldn't this be nice," she repeats again, her voice sounding far away, almost as if she's dreaming of something else. The arm around his shoulders tightens and she strokes his cheek with her other hand, her actions almost loving as she does this.

"If it all was real?"

My teeth grind together and I lunge forward in anger, intent on removing the girl from my frozen little brother; her hand moves faster than I can see and all of a sudden she has her sword pointing under my chin, cutting a thin trickle of blood, one hand steadily gripping the hilt while the other still stays around James' shoulder.

"Who are you! What do you want with my brother!" I bite out, struggling to move away from the sharp metal point – a force at my feet prevents me from doing so and I cry out in frustration; screw this whole being calm thing! The crazy bitch has my brother and _she's going to hurt him!_

Her eyes flicker in annoyance as she watches me struggle. "Stop thrashing about," she orders and my body stops in place against my will, my limbs numb. "I already told you who I was. Annabell. Anna. Whatever you want to call me. As for your brother…" Her eyes turn to him and she stares at his grinning face for a brief moment, before her lips curl into a bitter smile.

"He's not real. What does it matter what I do with him?"

The blood in my veins freezes.

"What do you mean?" I whisper, stopping my attempts to move. As soon as I do so, the spell releases itself and I find that I can flex my body again. The remains of the strange magic linger in my bones and I shift under the uncomfortable sensation.

Annabell shakes her head, her eyes still on James. "Just what I said. None of this is real." Her face finally meets mine and her eyes are mocking, boring into mine in such a way that I'm looking into a mirror, grey against grey, red against red. "Did you really think it was?"

"I…" I fail to find the words to explain myself, to explain the feeling of futile hope that this _was _real.

Annabell's eyes turn an odd shade of sympathetic, and in a flash her sword is back in her scabbard. "The need to return home is great, isn't it?" Her lips form into a sad half-smile. "I found my home. Don't you want to go back to yours?"

I stay silent, even as she sighs and removes her arm from my brother. My body tenses as she moves closer to me, her features matching mine so perfectly that I cannot help the strange sense of curiosity that overwhelms me. "Who are you?" I ask again.

She ignores my question. "It's easy, you know." She says, moving closer and closer until I can see the blue specks swirling in her eyes. "He lied to you. To keep you there."

"Who?"

"The boy. Eriol."

A shock passes over my bones at his name. "You know about Eriol?"

Twisted amusement flashes through her eyes. "Everyone knows about Eriol. He's the real reason you're there, aren't you? He's not letting you go because he _needs _you there. But _we _can make it all easier. _We _have the power he does not to make you go home." Her voice is quieter now, gentler, and she reaches up with one hand to caress my cheek. It feels oddly familiar.

"We?"

Annabell nods, a smile gracing her face as she speaks. "Yes, we. Edea and I. We have the power that Eriol does not; _we _can make you go home in an instant!" She grins, her face twisting into something much warmer. She appears to be as sane as anyone, contradicting the very first time I had met her.

"…Wouldn't you want that?"

"Yeah, sis!" James' voice makes me snap to attention and I watch as his body unfreezes, coming to stand beside Annabell. His hands reach out to grab mine, warm and not at the same time, beaming at me. "Come home! Mom and Dad are so worried!" His eyes fall. "You're not waking up," he continues, his voice lower and more sombre. "You just sleep there, not answering to anything we say." His face meets mine again, his expression begging. "Please wake up, sis! I don't like seeing Mom and Dad like this…Please, Kira?"

His words make my heart break. Tears are beginning to gather at the corners of my eyes and I break mine and James' contact, reaching up to rub them away. "I..."

"It won't be hard," Annabell says, placing one hand on my shoulder in comfort. "All you have to do is come with me and Edea for a bit. We can convince Squall and the others that this is the right thing to do, too! Seifer is with us, as well." She smiles, wiping away more of my tears now. "You want to see him, don't you? I know he wants to see you so, so badly."

I send her an incredulous glance, startled at the last part about him. "…He hates me for leaving him," I finally say, lowering my eyes to stare at the linoleum floor. "He hates me for not telling him."

The redhead shakes her head at my words, her hair flying around her as she does this. "No, he doesn't. He misses you a lot. He's afraid that _you _don't want to see him, because he knows you'd be against him becoming Edea's Knight."

I stay silent at her admission, letting her words flow through my brain; _he'd be right_. "Why do you care about this so much?"

She blinks at me a few times, startled by the question. "Because this is what Edea wants," she says at last, smiling at me, winding her hands behind her back as she looks down at the floor in embarrassment. "And Edea means a lot to me. She took care of me when no one else would. You understand what it's like to care for someone so much, don't you?"

_No, _I think with a pain in my heart. _I don't._

"But it doesn't matter," Annabell grins all of a sudden as her form begins to flicker. Beside her, James' does the same. "I don't have much time left. You don't have much time left, either." Her hands clamp down on my shoulders, one moment weighing down on my body and the next not. "Decide soon, okay? Edea and I want you with us very much! And we are your only choice of going home…and that's the thing that you want the most, isn't it, Kira?"

James steps forward to wrap his arms around me in a tight embrace, and his voice mutters into my chest before he disappears completely. "Wake up soon, okay, sis? I miss you."

My throat constricts as I wrap my arms back around his form on instinct, tightening my hold on him even as his body begins to lose its existence. "How long do I have to think?" I ask, my voice thick with unshed tears. Annabell stays silent in thought for a few seconds.

"The Sorceress Parade," she finally says, offering me one of her hands. "We'll be there; Edea and I. Join us at the Parade."

I grasp onto her hand and let myself be whisked away from the dreams of my past, her warm hand slipping away from mine as the world fades into darkness. Slowly, minute by minute, I can sense Flym's and Diablos' presence entering my mind again; a spark of confusion is running along the general line of their thoughts, and it makes me wonder why they are not panicking more. I was gone for a while, wasn't I?

"You alright?"

I start at Annabella's – Annabell? No, they feel different – voice from behind me, her hand at my back warm as she steadies me from toppling over. Her green eyes meet mine in worry and I see Squall staring at me as well as I turn to look at the both of them.

"…What?"

"You nearly fell," Annabella explains, quirking a smile at my predicament. "You've got to be more careful around here; the Tomb has been known to collapse many times over the centuries, so who knows what kind of debris are lying around the place." She removes her hand from my back and I stare at her for another moment before nodding.

"I'm alright. Thank you." Squall merely grunts ahead of us and sets off walking ahead, which we take as our cue to begin so as well. We continue in silence for some time, myself personally lost in my own thoughts, irritating Flym with the mental block I have set up.

_Fine, _she snaps at last, retreating from her attempts to break it down. _Be like that. _

I hum back at her in silent agreement, not completely focused on what it is that I am doing. The skin on my throat continues to sting with every moment, and annoyed, I reach up to soothe it, bringing my hand away to stare at it. The image registers itself in my mind after a few seconds and I smile, swiping my fingers against my jeans to rub away the blood.

The cut continues to throb, reminding me with every step of the choice I have been given.

-~o~-

**Things edited: **Annabelle has been changed to Annabella.


	15. Through The Looking Glass

_**Disclaimer: **__Final Fantasy VIII and everything associated with it does not belong to me…_

**Author's Note**: Edits done to Chapters 1 – 13; scroll down to the bottom of each chapter for the details, since several chapters contain new scenes… I suggest rereading all of Chapters 7 and 8, since the SeeD exam has been completely redone, and I've added the SeeD ball along with Seifer and Kira interaction scenes in both chapters.

Okay, so, um, I've had this written down since October of 2009, when I was doing those little edits... but then I lost complete interest in writing anything, as well as any games, and then started writing oneshots but had trouble writing anything longer... chapters 7 and 8 were sitting unfinished on my computer ever since then, and I finally sat down today and spent several hours writing them out. I am so, so sorry to anyone who is still reading this... err. School is over in 2 weeks so I've set myself up for a lot of free time to play through again and start writing this again. The original note here was concerning about Final Fantasy XIII and how the blonde character, Snow, resembled Seifer a lot... I was so, so mistaken. Geez.

**A recap of the story:**

Kira Lanning is a 13 year old girl who, after falling off a ladder at her house, finds herself in the hospital of a completely different world. Not recognizing where she is, she goes on with life as a normal teenager while training to be a mercenary in the strange school, until a weird boy appears and grants her all her memories of her home back. Having recovered these and having found out that in her birth place, this is all nothing but a game, she gives up trying to enjoy her life too much in Balamb Garden, knowing she'll be returning home soon. The boy who claims to be her Playstation, Eriol, says he can't return her until they complete the game; knowing this, she sets her mind on becoming a full fledged mercenary, a SeeD.

At seventeen years old, she stands at 5'7 with red hair and grey eyes. Her primary weapons are twin pistols and her Guardian Forces are Flym – a spirit given to her by Eriol a long time ago – and Diablos, whom she just acquired from Squall. She's a very moody girl, first appearing to be rude, sarcastic, and suspicious of others. However, her closest friends – Seifer, the first friend she made in Garden after trying to escape when she woke up, a romantic interest who up till now wavered between "friend" and "rival"; Bella, her cheery roommate who resides back in Balamb Garden; Karen, a headstrong girl who loves to gossip and has been set on getting Kira to admit her feeling for Seifer for the past few years; and Marlene, a quiet girl who loves romance novels and doesn't want to be a SeeD know her to be easily embarrassed, dependant on others, and a bit selfish.

After passing the SeeD exam, Kira was sent to Galbadia Garden as part of the Garden exchange program. There, she met up with Irvine Kinneas, and not too soon after set out with him to assassinate the Sorceress with the SeeD party from Balamb. Her close relations with Seifer puts her in Squall's bad books, and as the leader of the party, both often get on each other's nerves.

Meanwhile, a strange girl named Annabell by the Sorceress' side who looks a lot like Kira is offering her a chance to go home before completing the game if she joined the Sorceress and her. Going as far as to pull her into a false reality of a life back home as a high school student, so far she has been nothing but very dependent on the Sorceress and a bit hysterical in her accusations of Kira.

In the latest chapter, after having been separated from the rest of the party by a sudden earthquake in the Tomb of The Unknown King, Kira and Squall run into a girl who goes by the name of Annabella, who has requested to join up with them for the time being. For reasons unknown, Kira finds herself accepting her while Flym is oddly suspicious of her.

Whew! Please try to enjoy this chapter!

* * *

_Chapter XIV  
__**Through The Looking Glass**_

**Annabella **

We continue on through the passage, our feet tap-tapping out the worn-down paths before they disappear in the darkness behind us. My mind whirls, as if desperately scrambling to find something that it has forgotten. I scrunch up my eyes, trying to remember this thing that I can't.

"Annabella?"

My eyes snap open at being addressed – is that my name? Yes, that's my name – and the girl before me frowns in my general direction. She's pretty, but she's the kind of pretty girl that looks rough at the edges, and you'd see everyday as you walk by but your eyes would pass over her several seconds later. She also reminds me of someone that I feel like I should know – but I feel like a lot of things, and these things aren't exactly me.

_Go on, answer her_, a little voice in my head whispers, pushing me forward until I stumble into the girl.

"Annabella?" her voice is now tinged with confusion as she catches me, saying my name quickly, and it echoes in my head over and over again.

"Just tripped," I retort with a quirky smile as I gather myself, stepping back with the grace of a ghost I don't posses. Kira frowns, glancing at the ground for any rocks or indents in the floor, and my smile falters before she shakes her head and turns away.

"Be careful!" She calls over her shoulder, and the voice in my head giggles.

_Follow her, you stupid doll_, it sing-songs and I'm moving before her final sigh ends.

_That's not my name_, I think, and the girl with the weird laugh shoves it away before I can remember it again.

-~o~-

I follow the two figures in front of me for quite a while, watching as they argue and dance around each other as only two tense leaders can. The air tingles around them with suppressed animosity and I feel like if I bring up a hand, the air will separate into two.

"No, we go this way," Kira snaps, all pretense of pretty words long gone. "The water is coming from over there – it's obvious that if we find the source of it, we can find the exit—" She's cut off as a sudden roar sounds throughout the chambers, loosening several ancient pieces of debris above us. I bite my tongue as I dodge one right above me, jumping to my right to avoid the collision.

Squall's face is stony with the exception of his eyes – they glare down at his partner, before he turns his back on us.

"We go this way."

We follow behind him into the tunnel in silence.

-~o~-

Kira's mind is not quite right. I can feel the waves rolling off from her, angry and embarrassed and confused, yearning for something deep within herself. If I focus hard enough, I bet I could see right through her eyes.

I flinch away from the thought, drawing in my senses back into myself before I get too ahead of myself. The voice titters in amusement, pulling my strings to reach out again. It speeds past Kira right on to embrace the figure of Squall Leonhart, cooing to him to let it in and I can see him flinch, before he passes it off as just another ghost of this ancient place.

His defences are down and I am pushed in against my will, deep down into his core where a fire burns so bright and cold that it burns me, scorches the mental hands grasping and I choke down the scream bubbling in my throat.

Then the feeling is gone, Squall visibly shaken and the voice muttering with satisfaction. I shiver with pain, and it shivers with pleasure.

The jacket feels heavy against my body, almost waterlogged and I feel like a drowning rat, flailing helplessly as the piper lures me deeper into the canals. I draw in a deep breath, and for the first time in a long while, I feel scared.

The military is a harsh place. You see death, you see war, you see things a normal human being shouldn't. Military brats experience this earlier than anybody else; military brats are _expected _to follow in their parents' footsteps.

Too bad being a military brat doesn't always mean that you're strong.

I shudder and draw tighter into myself. Only reason little Annabella Green is so useful is because Father Dearest likes gifts from his enemies' minds, and if you win the war, who cares if your only daughter is part Sorceress?

Maybe it's just better to let the girl take control again. The weak always fall prey to the strong, anyway.

_You don't like to fight much, do you? _It muses for a second as the balance shifts between us. The girl sneers. _Don't try to lie to me, little girl. We'll get that blood lust of yours pumping again just yet. You were strong once, weren't you? You were _feared_. Whatever happened to change that?_

I stay quiet, obediently following after the voice's marks.

The voice snorts. _It's Annabell, by the way. Not that you need to know that._

A shocked chill creeps through me. The voice smiles.

_You and I are so different – but it doesn't matter. Like you said yourself, the weak will always fall to the strong._

-~o~-

It takes us a total amount of twenty-two minutes and fourteen seconds to reach the source of the noise.

"Don't tell me that this statue is the one making all of this racket," Kira groans, crossing her arms over in disappointment as we stare at the stone beast of a centaur. A quick flash of her mind tangles with mine – _"The Brothers, Diablos, now stay quiet!"_ – before it breaches the whole room, searching for the hidden pulse of life.

Annabell is awake before I. "Look out!" She yells in the general direction of Squall, who is closest to the statue. His head swivels at the warning just before the statue springs alive, mace unfreezing from its position to fall down in the air to where Squall is standing, rendered immobile with surprise.

"Squall!" Kira screams from the side, her shock passing as she grabs her guns and starts shooting at the roaring beast. "Move, you idiot!"

Her voice seems to break him out of his reverie and he falls to his side, yelling out in pain as the spikes of the mace graze his right arm, tearing at the skin and cloth there. A trail of blood follows him as he draws his gunblade and falls into a defensive position. In turn, the centaur before us shifts his position in agitation, before craning its neck.

"HOW DARE YOU DISTURB MY SLEEP?" Its voice sends trembles throughout the chamber and I yelp as Kira and I dodge more falling debris, jumping away to avoid the cracks on the floor.

"_The military is a dangerous place,_" flashes through my head again and I jump into the fray as the centaur, not wishing to hear our answer, bellows out in anger.

"Use Float on yourself if you have it!" Kira's voice comes out through the chaos of weapons clashing against the beast's flank and collapsing rocks, and I curse as an earthquake shudders under my feet, knocking me off-balance and sending me to my knees. I bite back the cry of pain as I hit the old pavement, sharp edges digging in through my clothes.

_You have Float, don't worry_, Annabell's voice comes calmly to me, followed by a steady stream of power. _Use it if you want to stay alive. _

I stagger back up on my feet, using my sword to keep upright as another tremor shudders underneath our feet. Behind me, I hear Kira shout _"Float!" _and turn around to see her rise unsteadily into the air, encased in a thin bubble of air. Gulping, I close my eyes and dive into myself for the spell. It comes too easily to me and my blood begins to thrum as I call upon the lifestream of Gaia, using it as my source of power.

"_Double Float!" _I shout, and Squall glances over his shoulder in surprise as he and I both hover over the shaking ground, protected from the Centaur's raging temper tantrum.

"Float him!" Squall's hoarse yell comes as he dodges around the Centaur's weapon to strike him in the general area of his chest. The beast roars in pain and anger as the gunblade pierces through his skin, but abruptly, the raw skin begins to stitch itself up, until it's near perfect again. Slowly, the realization dawns in on me.

"_The ground heals him_!" Both Annabell and Squall yell at the same time, and the Float spell is off my fingers in mere seconds.

"HOW DARE YOU FILTHY HUMANS COME INSIDE HERE!" The centaur howls at us again, thrashing in the bubble of air surrounding him. His fists pound against it, angered at having lost control of his movement.

"What do we do now?" Kira asks from beside me, breathing a bit heavy and I notice the blood clinging to her hair at the side of her skull. Squall keeps his injured arm still as he tries to cast a strong enough Cure on himself, and we all take a moment to try and figure out what to do now in terms of the thrashing creature before us.

The male SeeD catches my attention on him. "I only have enough Cures to numb it," he explains curtly, finally dropping his attempts to do more than that. His frustration channels to me for a brief moment and I wince.

"Physical attacks can't hurt him," Annabell is speaking for me, through me. "We need to use the best magic we have at our disposal while he is still trapped."

"In case you haven't noticed, none of us here can use anything stronger than _para_-magic on a regular basis." Kira snaps beside me, her expression guarded and her shoulders tense. Annabell searches the room again for Kira's thoughts –

"_Dammit, Flym, it _hurts_, just come here and help us get him down permanently already!" _

And more subdued, echoing underneath the current rushing through her head;

"_The parade soon, it's home, it's the Sorceress, _the parade, no time…"

- abruptly, Annabell pulls back, satisfied, cutting off the connection and receding back into my mind.

"Well then, we'll have to try out best with what we've got," Squall growls at her from in front of us, already powering up a Fira spell, the bright glow of it encircling the area around his feet, runes dancing up in patterns around the runic circle. All of this is over within seconds as he shouts out _"Fira!"_, aiming right for the centaur's snout, who bellows back in pain, still trapped in his air prison. My eyes stay focused on where he cast though, becoming oblivious to the continued shouts of my companions, even as a _Blizzard _spell grazes my cheek. The runes replay themselves in my mind's eye, and a strange type of yearning awakens within me.

_My power can be one hundred times stronger than that, _passes through my mind, along with Annabell's hum of agreement. _If I just accept it, I can…_

_Summon me, _Annabell whispers to me, encouraging this lust for power. _Summon me, and your father will never underestimate you ever again. _Her words become louder, more impatient with each second that passes as I hesitate. If someone else was to know that I was a Sorceress – or, at least, a small part of me, somewhere, was – what would happen? My father would not stand up for me anymore, and the power is so _great _that it is feared…

_Summon me! _Annabell's voice is more frantic, crazy as she begins to push at the edges of my mind. _Summon me! I need to show that stupid thief the kind of power she could have with me_!

One flicker of thought is all it takes, just that one _What if… _and Annabell's presence is rushing out of me, in the form of a sacred beast, her features so beautifully twisted in a macabre way. The world seems to freeze as the room turns many hues of red, an unearthly wail piercing the air as Squall and Kira drop to the ground with cries of agony. They clutch at their ears from the sound the summon makes, but all I can do is watch in wonder.

"What the hell is this thing!" Kira begins to yell, but her voice is overshadowed as Annabell – taking on the form of a Guardian Force – begins to appear. I watch as she floats in the air for a moment, almost like a humane, gigantic tornado, red flesh and smoke with the face of otherworldly creatures. The skin on her face is stretched taunt over her cheekbones, eyes bottomless sockets and the hair of Medusa, golden snakes that hiss this way and that as she takes in her surroundings. Something like a grin stretches across her face as she spots the centaur frozen at the end of the stone room, and with a scream, she launches herself at him, skinny hands wrapping themselves around his body before her whole being lights up in dancing flames and she's all over him – the centaur, in turn, is set aflame in towering columns of red and orange.

"YOU DAMNED HUMANS!" He screeches and I gulp, feeling the heat all the way from over here, as the spirit disappears piece by piece, skimming the ground as she does so. She passes by Kira and the girl chokes down a startled scream, edging farther away from her.

_What was that? _I ask, part fearful and part in awe, once I feel Annabell back inside my head, taking control of things once again.

Her voice trembles as she attempts to speak, some spark of the insanity she just was and pleasure thrumming in her voice. _That was true, raw power only someone of my capabilities can posses. _

And she is right. The centaur's body lies unmoving in the floating bubble around him, his skin heavily burned and scarred. A shudder of anticipation passes through my body.

"I don't even want to know what that was," Kira's voice shakes as she gets back up onto her feet, her body quivering slightly as she gropes around for her guns. Squall's laboured breathing is an agreement to her words as she turns towards the unmoving creature.

"Is it dead?" He asks, managing to keep his voice fairly neutral. The centaur gives a sudden groan, as if in response, before his body begins to fade away, until there is nothing left.

I find my own voice this time. "I'm sorry if that startled you. It was… unexpected."

"That wasn't a Guardian Force," Kira voices roughly, her stubborn attitude back as she recovers from her fright. Squall interrupts before either one of us can say anything else.

"It doesn't matter what it was or wasn't," he says, shouldering his gunblade as another Cure circle, this time stronger from the time his body had to rest, starts up below him. "All that matters is that we are on a time limit here, and that thing just most likely saved us a lot of that." The skin on his injured arm glows before being roughly stitched back together. Squall winces at this, but doesn't say a word.

"Wait," I interrupt Kira as she attempts to do the same, one hand already up at her temple. I rush towards her, ignoring her flinch, and bring up my hands to the skin there. "It's very dangerous to mess up there, and I'm one of the army's top casters."

I can feel her displeasure at having me near her, and draw back after the _Curaga _spell takes its course. She closes her eyes against the pain that settles into her head, but mutters a _"Thanks,_" nonetheless and I smile, nodding at her as we both dust ourselves off.

"The curative spells help stitch up your body, but it still hurts when your skin repairs itself," I say, as by means of an explanation to helping her, suddenly embarrassed. "You have to be careful about head injuries, because one mess-up can cause brain or skull damage." Something passes over her face at those words, and her lips quirk up into an odd smirk.

"Right, and I don't need anymore of that," she says and I attempt to laugh with her, uncomfortable at the unstable brain waves I keep on detecting from her.

_Maybe she needs a doctor, _I suggest to Annabell, but all the strange girl does is snort in amusement.

_Sweetheart, you don't know half of it. _Before I can question the bizarre words, Squall taps his gunblade against the floor, effectively drawing our attention to him.

"If we're all done here, we still need to meet up with everyone else." Beside me, the red-haired SeeD nods in agreement.

"We don't know if there's any more of these things here," she says, her lips stretched into a grim line. "And they have less people than us, too."

Squall stares at her for a few seconds, his face a blank mask, before finally turning in the opposite direction and starting off at a fast walk. "We'll go in the direction of where the water's coming from," he tells us over his shoulder, and the frown on Kira's lips disappears into a small, all-knowing smile.

-~o~-

"So… you're the General's kid?"

"If you want to get technical, then yeah, we're related."

"You don't sound very happy about being his daughter."

"If you knew him like I do, then you wouldn't want to be a part of his family, either."

Irvine winces. "Ouch. Nice little father-daughter relationship you two have there."

Rinoa hurries her steps, her eyes not straying from the darkness ahead. "There is no relationship," she says, voice flat. "All he wants to do is have me locked up in that house of his."

A roar steals the words on Irvine's lips and the two pause, frozen, as the sound eventually dies down. Silence settles and a shudder runs through the brunette's body – behind her, the hit man shifts his grip on the shotgun at his side.

"What do you think that was?" He finally asks when it's obvious that wherever the source of the noise was, it wasn't heading their way.

"I don't know," Rinoa says after a short pause, frowning as she searches the shadows ahead of them for any sign of life. A rat scuttles across the floor, startling her, and she backs up into the man behind her with a squeak – a smirk tugs at Irvine's lips as he releases her, patting her shoulder in comfort as he does so.

"Don't worry," the gunman exclaims, reaching up to tip his cowboy hat with one hand cockily. "The great Irvine will be here to protect you, Princess."

Rinoa pulls away abruptly, twisting out of his reaching distance and shakes her head in disgust. "I can't believe it," she mutters, before picking up the pace and taking the lead again. "Let's go and find everybody else, Kinneas, before they get eaten alive."

Behind her, Irvine laughs. "Whatever you say, ma'am."

-~o~-

"So… how do you think everybody else is doing?"

"I'm sure they're fine," Zell says, stretching his arms high above his head as the trio of SeeDs turn another rounded corner of the tomb. Selphie frowns at the answer, clutching her nunchakus closer to her.

"This place freaks me out."

A dry chuckle echoes behind them and they glance back at Quistis' amused face, her whip idly swinging on her hip as she walks a few paces behind them. "I think that the King this tomb belongs to would be highly offended by that, don't you?" Her smile stretches as Selphie's cheeks flush, even in the darkness, and the short brunette turns her head back in the direction or the hallways.

"Well, geez, he didn't need to make this place so _spooky_."

A grin stretches over Zell's face and he shakes his head, but winces the next moment as he missteps in the dark and stumbles. A giggle comes from the brunette at his side, and he sighs. "Okay, maybe he does need a few lights here and there."

An awkward silence falls over the trio as they walk.

"Say, Selphie, what's it like at Trabia Garden?"

The young SeeD in question glances up at Zell in surprise, before thinking over the answer. "Well… it's colder than Balamb. And the Garden there had a _humongous _skating rink for all year long, and since there all these mountains around, we'd have these buses come around every weekend to take us down to Trabia Village for shopping and stuff…" She shrugs, relaxing a bit at the topic of her home. "But, I like it here at Balamb Garden! Everything is so warm, and you have the ocean here, too. My parents always used to tell me that I lived by the ocean as a little girl, so it's been something I wanted to see for a long time…" She trails off, frowning in thought. "But, now that I mention it, I don't ever remember living by the water when I was a kid…"

"You never asked your parents about it?" She shakes her head in answer, side-stepping a crack in the floor.

"I was adopted, you see. My mom and dad don't like talking about it, so it's pretty hard to get details on stuff before that. And even then, it's hard to remember some stuff – it's weird…"

This seems to catch Quistis' attention and her brows knit together in thought. "Did you use a Guardian Force before you came to Balamb?"

The question catches Selphie off-guard and she nods, surprised. "Yea, one saved my life when I was training in the mountains once. But how does that…?"

A knowing smile lights up on the blonde woman's face. "There's a study going on right now about how using Guardian Forces effects memory loss. It hasn't been proven yet, but it's certainly a possibility."

Zell's face visibly pales under the dim lights. "You mean – if we continue to use them, we're gonna forget everything?"

"Not everything," Quistis continues sternly, sliding her glasses up her nose nonchalantly, every inch of the Instructor she used to be. "The longer you use a Guardian Force, the more memory they will start to take up – therefore, if you use one for – say, five years – you could expect to lose more memory than someone who has just been using one for a month."

"Gee, Instructor Trepe, that's really—" Catching the blonde woman's look, Zell ducks his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, Quistis. It's still a bit too weird to be calling you by your name, especially when you explain something like that."

She dismisses this with a wave of her hand. "I understand that, Zell. Believe me, the both of you are still cadets in my eyes." A quiet falls at her words and the woman sighs after a second – "I apologize. We are both on the same rank now. Let us continue forward; we don't want to keep the others waiting for us."

"If it helps any, Selphie," Zell's voice breaks through the stale air of the passageway after several minutes of walking, "I was adopted as a kid, too. I didn't use GFs until about a year ago, so I still remember the childhood with my Ma pretty well."

The brunette woman sends him a big, teasing smile – "Thanks, Zell. Maybe after all of this is over, we can see where it is where the both of us come from! Who knows, we could have been at the same orphanage, and not even remember it!"

The two laugh at the words, the tension dropping a smidge as they continue on.

-~o~-

"So, Annabella…" Kira's speaking again, walking slower to fall into step behind me. "How old did you say you were again?" Squall continues on ahead of us, ignorant to the world. The rush of water is becoming louder now, assuring us that we are heading the right way.

I startle at the question, surprised. "I didn't tell you?" I ask, and the young woman shakes her head _no_. "I'll be nineteen this year – next month, actually." She seems to have unexpected this answer, and stares at me from head to toe for a few seconds. I shift my shoulders under her gaze, feeling awkward, before her grey eyes meet mine again.

"You're older than me," she says, still looking somewhat amazed. "I'll be eighteen next year. You just look so…" She flushes at her unfinished sentence, and I choke down my giggle.

"Small?" I finish for her, and she nods. I shrug, smiling. "Yeah, I know I am. I grew up like that – it's actually pretty useful, considering the fact that I specialize in swordplay. In the military—" I break off, not wanting to get into this topic. She frowns, detecting this, but doesn't say a word.

"How long were you in the military?" She asks me instead, and I tip my head back in thought – there is nothing on the ceiling except bat droppings and spider webs. How long has it been now…? I frown, trying to come up with the suddenly fuzzy memory.

_Fifteen years, _Annabell whispers in my ear, humming. _You've been there your whole entire life, remember? Your Father was very happy when he found out what you could do…_

"Fifteen years," I reply back, embracing the girl in my head. "I've been there my whole life – my father is a Colonel there, see?"

"So you've been there since you were four years old…" Something passes over Kira's eyes; something that resembles pity. I can feel my annoyance begin to rise up.

"It's fine," I say before she can.

Squall's voice interrupts her as it comes on from ahead. "We're here." Annabell shifts in my mind, whispering – _Finally. _– and I hurry after Kira as we step into the arch beside Squall. The hall opens up with a loud rush of water – amazed, the three of us stare at the old water wheel creaking at the center of the room, the rock wall behind it showing glimpses of shrubbery to us. Sunlight filters through the cracks on the ceiling and a small beam of light falls into the water below, creating a rainbow.

"Wow," the young woman beside me breathes out. "Guess there is something here, after all." I look at her in confusion.

"The Guardians?" I ask. She nods, and lifts up one hand to point something beyond the cracked walls. After a moment of squinting, I see what she sees – a smile breaks across my face. "Wow indeed," I say, stepping over the small cracks filled with water beneath our feet, and lean out to peer closer outside the window. "I can't believe that the legend is real."

"The monster back there, wasn't that it?" Squall's quiet baritone comes up behind me, and I frown.

"It says Guardian_s_, though. We only encountered one of them." I trail off in thought. "So if we continue up to the King's tomb up ahead, there is a chance we might see the other one."

"Or maybe the others took care of him," Kira adds, leaning against the walls between the doorway. "I doubt they would just leave one Guardian stationed on one half of the maze."

I can hear the squeak of leather as Squall moves. "We don't know how soon they will get here. We're running out of time."

Annabell bristles inside of me. "Would you rather die?" He seems taken back at the angry words, staring at me intently for a few moments. Annabell makes me meet his stare head-on – his eyes are cold, and they look a lot like my father's; I want to look away, but she makes me stay. _If you never want to face your fears, _she says, a bored drawl in her voice, _then you'll never get stronger. _

Kira comes to my rescue, distracting us both as she skips a small stone on the river beneath the wall. "She's right, Squall." The rock sinks after only one jump, and from my angle, it looks like she's pouting. "You're being like Seifer now, rushing into things – not very good for a SeeD leader, I think."

The name she mentions seems to do the trick, whomever it belongs to – the brunette man scoffs, turning away from me to glare at the opposite wall. "Whatever."

The three of us fall silent, and I take the time to examine the area outside the window beside me. Through the trees I can see another tomb peek out, covered by tree branches and shadows. A small, broken brick pass winds around the trees to the entrance, a small breeze coming from the open roof up on top. The whole area looks almost wraithlike, covered in patches of sunlight and shadow, devoid of any signs of life.

"This is a strange place," I say to no one in particular, but can hear Kira move against the wall she's resting on. The telltale sound of Squall's leather stays silent.

"I wonder who was buried here," Kira mutters, and I turn around to see her gazing into space. "He must have been very important."

I nod, and settle down beneath the window. "Not many people can find records anymore, but he was. About two hundred years ago, there was a war on these plains between Galbadia and a very angry Sorceress. She was his wife, you see, but when he found out what she was, he ordered her away. She was locked up in this maze for a very long time, until the King, many years later, grew remorseful and visited her. But he grew stupid in his old age, and she killed him here, escaping to pass on her powers to someone else. His body was found, and he was buried here." I shrug. "A lot of those records were destroyed because he lost the favour of the people once they found out who exactly his wife was."

Kira stays silent, absorbing all of this information. "That's really something," she says at last, something in her eyes lighting up as we fall onto the topic. "What else do you know about Galbadia?'

It takes fifteen minutes of story telling and Kira's choice comments for us to finally hear the footsteps outside. The three of us shift, gripping our weapons in preparation, bit quiet voices float out to us and Kira and Squall relax. I lower my eyes nervously as we get up at the prospect of meeting the rest of the mercenaries, and draw in a deep breath.

The first to come through the door is a fairly short, brunette girl wearing a bright yellow sundress – upon seeing Kira standing right by the entrance, she gives a squeal and throws herself at her, enveloping her in a large hug. The redhead seems to be somewhat glad as he friend lets go, smiling at her in greeting.

"We were worried about you and Squall," the brunette admonishes, her hands on her hips. "We were thinking you two would have ripped each other apart by now."

Whatever Kira is about to say is interrupted by the next person dragging themselves in, groaning. "You wouldn't believe what we managed to run into," he says upon spotting us, his eyes lingering curiously on me. The tattoo on his face catches my attention, however, and I watch him as he begins pacing the room.

_I wonder if that hurt, _I say to Annabell, curious – she stays quiet in answer, ignoring me.

"A centaur?" Kira jokes at his words, and the rest of the group that had just come in stares at her. A smile plays at her lips. "Am I right?"

"How'd you know?" Says the blond, peering at her suspiciously. She laughs.

"Stop looking at me like that, Zell," she replies, smiling, and seeing this part of her is a bit odd, after seeing her argue with Squall the whole entire time; I store the name in my head for future reference. "We ran into one, too, and figured that there might be another one, since the legends say there are _two _guardians."

The other blond – a tall, elegant looking woman – nods. "Yes, the centaur mentioned something about a brother…" She trails off, frowning as her eyes land on me. "Who are you?" She asks brusquely. The brunette man with a shotgun at his side, Zell, Kira's friend, and another dark-haired young woman stare at me in curiosity.

Annabell pushes me forward. "I'm Annabella. I was out exploring these ruins when I happened to run into Squall and Kira." She makes me feel like nodding my head politely. "It's nice to meet you."

The woman's frown doesn't move, and her eyes look over my uniform. "You are from the military?" Behind her, Zell and the sharpshooter exchange glances.

"Yes, I am." At my words, the group tenses, much to my interest. "I've been sent here to investigate the Tomb for any dangers that may be here for the Sorceress Parade."

"And has the pretty lady found anything?" The man with the gun sends me a roguish smile from underneath his hat, and I can feel my cheeks turn pink.

"Well – no. I'm just here to see about the legends on my own personal agenda, now, since this is the first time I've had enough time to get this far." The group relaxes at this, and my curiosity spikes. _What's going on here? _I ask Annabell, and she hums. Frustrated, I attempt to search their minds – the humming stops, and so does my power, right before I can enter the SeeDs' minds.

_Don't do that, _Annabell commands, and I bristle.

"Drop it, Quistis," Kira finally says, coming up behind me as the woman – Quistis – opens her mouth again. "Annabella was more than enough help against the centaur that Squall and I ran into, and I'm pretty sure that we have enough time to investigate the King's Tomb over there before we head back." She turns to me, smiling a little. "This is Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Irvine and Rinoa – they're SeeDs as well." She pauses. "Well, Rinoa and Irvine aren't, but they're tagging along with us anyway."

I start up at one of the names, and smile at the dark-haired younger girl. "I know someone named Rinoa, too. It's a pretty name." The brunette smiles curiously.

"Really? From Deling?"

I nod. "Yes. She's just a little girl right now, though."

"Moving on," we turn our attention to Squall as he walks closer. "Since the other Guardian has already been defeated, we should head into the tomb."

"We don't know what we'll find there, so be careful," I add, fingering the sword at my side.

"But…" Rinoa pipes up, her brows drawn together as she glances around. "There is no door out of here."

"Then we go through the window." Kira states, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. Irvine laughs quietly to himself.

"Wouldn't that be breaking and entering?" Rinoa continues, ignoring the cowboy look-alike beside her. Kira sends her a funny look.

"He's already dead," she says, turning on her heel and heading for the window at the back. "It's all in the name of history," she continues, hefting herself over the ledge. She glances back at us. "Well? Are you all coming, or what?"

The girl in the yellow dress – Selphie – grins and moves after her friend. Irvine is next, shrugging as by means of explanation before heading off too.

"If it helps any," Kira's voice floats back to us as she begins to disappear behind the trees. "This whole place belongs to him. Technically, we've already broken into his home."

Zell winces beside me at the words. "I feel like a grave robber," he mutters before going to leap over to follow the other SeeDs. Rinoa sighs, giving up, and shakes her head at them. I smile a bit, reminded of the two-year-old Rinoa I know, before going over to join the others. Squall, Rinoa and Quistis move behind me, and one by one we emerge into the sunlight.

"Hey," Selphie's voice comes from behind a few trees, sounding excited. "You guys come over here and help us open this!"

We follow in her direction and soon come upon the four of them standing in front of the ancient doors of the King's resting place. Selphie stands in front of it, scowling at the beam that prevents us from entering.

"Come on Irvine," Kira says, smirking at the brunette. "You're supposed to be the all-charming ladies man – help us open this thing."

He sends her a look, staring down at her amused face. "You're kidding, right?" He asks, and when she shakes her head, he groans. "Well, you heard the lady, Squall, Zell. Let's get this show on the road."

After several minutes of the three pushing away at it – with some assistance from us – the beam slowly slides out, inch by inch, until it finally falls to the ground below with a loud _thump._

I stare at the door, feeling my excitement grow as Squall pushes it open. The interior is dark as we step in, and Quistis quickly summons up a fireball in her hand to help us see better.

"It's so dark," Selphie mutters in disappointment, her own fireball in hand as she tries to take a look at our surroundings.

"There should be something here," Kira murmurs, already several feet away from us, groping at the wall. "A torch or some-_ah!_" She exclaims in triumph, lighting up a fire. "Found them."

Five minutes later, the medium-sized room is lit up in several places, casting eerie shadows around us. I take a closer look at the walls – "There's words on here," I breath out, squinting to try and make more sense of them. Years of corrosion covers it and I lean back, exhaling loudly. "It's no good. I can't read anything."

"Um," we turn in Selphie's direction, sensing the distress in her voice. "That's nice and all, but – what is this?"

Squall is nearest to her and heads over to investigate. "It's a coffin," he says after a few moments. Zell shifts nervously behind me.

"Do we open it… or what?" We all exchange glances, uncertain.

"We've come this far," Quistis says to break the silence, the length of her whip slapping against her leg as she walks over to Squall and Selphie. "Might as well see if we can find whatever it is that controls the centaurs outside."

"Wouldn't that be the dead person?" Selphie squeaks, jumping farther away from her two teammates. I back away a bit myself, despite the lust for knowledge bubbling up in me.

_Open it already, _Annabell snaps inside my head, moving me forward. _We're running out of time._

"Squall, open it." Kira echoes Annabell unknowingly, moving to stand beside him. "We're all adults here – we can handle one dead body."

Zell mutters something that sounds suspiciously a lot like _grave robber _before going to stand beside Selphie. Her eyes are wide as she stares at the trio by the coffin, watching as they attempt to move the lid down. Rinoa moves behind her a second later, not quite glancing at the scene.

"Irvine, come help us," Quistis calls after a few minutes, and the cowboy emerges from the dark corner he was standing at quietly, looking a bit sick in the face.

"You sure, Quistis? We don't know what could be down in it." He hesitates and I huff angrily, walking forward to take a spot at Squall's side.

"It was my idea to come here," I say, trying to find a grip on the wood. Even after years of neglect, some spell has kept it in perfect condition. "It'd be stupid if I didn't help you with this. Irvine," I glance at the young man for a second. "You can wait with Selphie, Rinoa and Zell if you want. We have this covered."

The cowboy waves my words away, moving beside Kira. "As if I'm going to let you ladies do all the manual labour." The redhead smirks and mutters something under her breath to him, and he shoots her a large smile.

"Ready?" Squall asks, and we nod, our bodies tensing in preparation. "Go."

We push at the lid with all our strength, grunting in effort, and finally it slides down, inch by inch. Selphie whimpers from her spot and I can see her cover her eyes.

"What's in there?" Rinoa asks, refusing to look inside. Zell, however, cranes his head at the coffin, his curiosity winning over.

"It's a mummy," Quistis states, leaning forward to get a better look at it. "It doesn't seem to have what we are looking for."

Kira makes an odd sound, a frown settling on her lips. "Are you sure? No rings, artefacts, or anything?"

The blond SeeD shakes her head in answer. "It's disappointing, but it's the truth."

The frown on the redhead's face intensifies as she reaches out an arm to brush at the wrappings on the body. "That can't be—"

"HUMANS."

We whirl around at the deep voice, our weapons clutched tightly in our hands.

"Who's there?" Squall calls out, on edge, gripping his gunblade tightly. Slowly, the empty air around us begins to shift – two forms begin to appear, one large and hulking, contrasting against the short, stout one flickering into reality beside it.

"You're the centaur we ran into!" Selphie exclaims, coming to her senses as the shapes become solid. The shorter creature nods, eyeing her almost critically.

"That's right," says, his voice just as small as he is – I blink, startled, as the larger centaur of the two speaks again.

"HUMANS," he says again, his voice shaking the room around us. "WHY ARE YOU HERE, IN OUR MASTER'S FINAL RESTING PLACE?"

"So you _are _the rumoured Guardians of this place!" I blurt out before anyone can say anything, and instantly regret it as all eyes turn on me. The shorter Guardian examines me.

"Yes we are. We have stayed here guarding this tomb for over two centuries."

"They're Guardian Forces," Kira explains before I can ask. "I guess they have somehow managed to survive living here so long."

"OUR MASTER IS MERELY UNDER A SLEEP THAT NO ENCHANTMENT CAN LIFT," says Centaur One, and Zell, Selphie and Rinoa back away from the coffin as if they have been bitten. "THE SORCERESS THAT PUT HIM UNDER THIS WAS VERY ANGRY."

"So…" Selphie's voice shakes as she lifts one finger to point at the coffin. "That person… is alive?"

"No," Centaur Two answers in amusement. "His conscious has left him a very long time ago. It is his body and organs that have been left alive for years."

Every person in the room seems to be white in the face all of a sudden; the small centaur chuckles. "Now, we shall ask you again, humans – you have defeated us. Why are you still here?"

Annabell groans in my mind. _Oh, this is so annoying, _she mutters, forcing me to the back of my mind as she takes over. I struggle for a second, but fall quiet after a moment.

"I'm sorry," my mouth moves, directed at the Guardians. "We were curious about this place, and then we got trapped by a cave-in."

The two exchange a look before speaking. "Very well. My little brother and I shall escort you out." It's our turn to stare, confused.

"But…aren't you mad?" They share a laugh at Rinoa's words – the whole room shakes again, and I step out of the way of a falling rock.

"IF WE HAD DETECTED ANY DANGER FROM YOU, OTHER THAN OUR BATTLES, YOU WOULD ALREADY BE DEAD."

We chuckle nervously at the explanation, moving farther away from the wooden coffin. Centaur One easily swings the lid bad into place before following us out, the doors swinging shut behind him. They disappear and reappear on the other side of the window when we get there, and wait for us as we climb over.

"Well, this is not weird at all," I catch Kira mutter to Irvine and Selphie behind me as we trek in silence. Irvine chuckles in response, but the group stays quiet otherwise.

"Is this the place?" The shorter brother asks once we reach a place just a bit farther than where I ran into Kira and Squall, and Kira nods.

"Yea, this is where Squall and I wound up."

The mountain of collapsed rocks is still here, looking like it had not moved even a small pebble to the side. The brothers examine it for a moment, before ordering us to stand back. We do so, pressing up against the cold walls – Zell mutters in disgust as his elbow leans into something – and watch the Guardians.

"Ready, lil' bro?" Centaur Two asks, and his brother nods, moving to stand against the far end of the hallway.

"What are they doing?" Whispers Kira in question, watching the two curiously as the smaller monster climbs into his brother's hands; Centaur Two rears his arms back, and throws.

Kira blink as the creature flies by her. "…Oh."

With a loud crash, the centaur flies into the pile of boulders, sending them in every direction possible. We cover ourselves from the shower of dust, ducking down low to avoid the ancient debris heading out way. The seven of us gape at the scene once we get back up.

"That was…"

"Odd." Irvine finishes Zell's sentence, dusting off his clothes from stray dirt with a disgruntled look on his face. A groan comes from the spot where the Guardian landed, the centaur himself staggering out after a moment.

"Well, that should have cleared it up," he says mildly, shaking his head to clear the stars I can almost see.

"Um," Selphie comes forward to kneel beside him, biting her lip. "Are you okay?"

The bull-like monster chuckles at her. "I'm fine, little girlie, no need to worry about me. All part of the job description." His younger brother's large form appears beside him, and the two turn their attention at the now clean path.

"Thank you for your help," Quistis say politely, smiling at the two. I swear I can see them blush.

"Say, little lady," the short one turns to Selphie, examining her for a moment before something small appears in her hands. "Here. Take it."

The brunette examines the flat item in her hand – a small, old silver hammer charm. "What is it?" She asks, holding it up to look at it closer.

"OUR SOULS ARE BOUND TO THIS PLACE," Centaur One speaks. "HOWEVER, IF YOU WISH TO SUMMON US WHEN YOU ARE IN NEED OF OUR ASSISTANCE, THEN YOU ARE FREE TO DO SO, USING THAT CHARM."

"That used to belong to the King," his brother continues, smiling at us. "However, since he no longer needs it, we think that you will benefit from it much more than he could."

Selphie looks slightly pale at the mention of the item in her hand belonging to a dead – asleep – person, but tucks it away into a small pocket in her dress and smiles. "I – thank you," she says at last. "I'm sorry we opened your Master's coffin."

The Guardian Forces laugh. "Don't worry about it, lil' girlie."

"It's time to leave," Squall declares, and nods at the brothers before turning on his heel and striding in the direction of the exit.

"Thank you," Kira and Rinoa echo, following after him. We all say our good-byes and watch as the Guardians disappear into thin air.

"Well," Irvine says as we stare at the spot where they just were. "Guess that's that."

"I'll accompany you out," I say, smiling as we begin to hurry after the others. "We're both heading back to Deling, anyway."

"Did you get here by car?" Zell asks and I shake my head. "You walked?"

"I—" I balk internally, suddenly lost for words. _How did I get here…? _Shaking my head and deciding that yes, I had probably walked here, I nod.

"Well, yes."

The young blond man grins. "Great. You can ride back with us then."

I smile back at him. "Thank you, Zell."

_Finally,_ Annabell mutters in side my mind, shifting. _You took so long; we were almost out of time._

I stay quiet, not questioning her words, and wonder what she needs these people for. Something passes through me – something that resembles remorse, but it's chased away quickly with the ghost of Annabell's fingertips.

_Remember, _she reminds me, wrapping herself around my powers, pulling the magic in my blood tighter to her presence in me until it begins to hurt. _If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here. _As if trying to prove that she is serious about this, I abruptly trip—

"Are you okay?" Zell asks, glancing back at me in worry, and I am glad that the darkness covers up the space where my right leg should be.

"I'm fine," I reply back and grit my teeth in my pain as Annabell laughs, and reforms my body, skin, bones and all.

Briefly, I wonder as to how I had somehow managed to sell my soul to the Devil, what the price was, and why I couldn't remember the last day I had been to see my father.

_That's odd, _I think, frowning, trying to bring the memories back together. _That was the day he sent me off to… where was it? _

_Esthar, _Annabell answers for me, smiling. _That was the day he sent you off to appease their Sorceress, wanting to avoid war. Don't you remember it?_

And then she pushes, shoves, and hits until she's the only one conscious in my body.

-~o~-

I realized that I had messed up the Tomb only after I had half of this chapter finished, so it's not exactly how it was in the game. Again, sorry for the long amount of time it took me to put this up – I haven't had time or the interest for FFVIII lately, or even any other games. Academics are starting to take up a lot of my time.


End file.
